Nuclear Waste Cleanup

In 1988, radioactive contamination was found in the drinking wells of homes near the government's uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Kentucky. In response, the Department of Energy (DOE) connected local residences to municipal water supplies and began a cleanup program to identify and remove contamination in the groundwater, surface water, and soils located within and outside the plant's boundaries. Sources of the hazardous chemical and radioactive contamination included spills, leaks from contaminated buildings, buried waste, scrap yards, and waste lagoons. From 1988 through 1999, DOE spent about $388 million on these cleanup efforts. GAO found that the Department's plan for addressing the contamination at Paducah focuses on six major cleanup categories. Four of these address the physical contamination at the site: groundwater; surface water (for example, in ditches and creeks); soils; and buried waste. Two other major categories of cleanup work include treating and disposing of the equivalent of about 52,000 barrels of waste now stored on site and decontaminating and removing the two unused, contaminated uranium process building. DOE faces many challenges to completing its cleanup as planned. Uncertainties about the extent, source, and nature of contamination yet to be cleaned up could affect the cleanup plan; the outcome of such uncertainties could increase the cleanup costs. DOE also faces several technical risks, including the planned use of technologies that are unproven or perhaps not well suited to the site's conditions. Also underpinning the plan are assumptions that annual federal funding will rise to an average of $124 million through 2010. If the expected increase in funding does not occur, the project could take longer to complete. Even when the planned cleanup has been carried out, billions of dollars and many years will be needed to address areas at the Paducah site that are not in the cleanup plan. These areas include (1) large amounts of waste and scrap metals, (2) various unused buildings and structures, (3) thousands of tons of depleted uranium, and (4) the buildings and equipment that are now being used in the enrichment process but that will have to be cleaned up when the plant closes.

GAO noted that: (1) DOE's plan for addressing the contamination at the Paducah site focuses on six major cleanup categories; (2) four of these address the physical contamination on the site: (a) groundwater; (b) surface water; (c) soils; and (d) buried waste; (3) two other major categories of cleanup work include treating and disposing of the equivalent of about 52,000 barrels of waste stored on site and decontaminating and removing two unused, contaminated uranium process buildings; (4) the cleanup plan includes cost and schedule estimates for characterizing the contamination in each cleanup category and for using technologies to treat, remove, and dispose of the contamination; (5) the current plan estimates the cost of completing the cleanup at $1.3 billion from fiscal years 2000 through 2010; (6) DOE faces many challenges to completing its cleanup as planned; (7) uncertainties about the extent, source, and nature of contamination yet to be cleaned up could affect the cleanup plan; (8) DOE also faces several technical risks, including the planned use of technologies that are unproven or perhaps not well suited to the site's conditions; (9) also underpinning the plan are assumptions that annual federal funding will increase to an average of $124 million through 2010; (10) if the planned increase in funding does not occur, the project could take longer to complete; (11) these issues make it uncertain that DOE will be able to accomplish the cleanup within its estimated timeframe and cost; (12) even when the planned cleanup has been carried out, billions of dollars and many years will be needed to address areas at the Paducah site that are not in the cleanup plan; (13) four areas at the site that will need cleaning up are: (a) large amounts of waste and scrap materials; (b) various unused buildings and structures; (c) thousands of tons of depleted uranium; and (d) the buildings and equipment that are now being used in the enrichment process but that will have to be cleaned up when the plant closes; (14) the additional materials, buildings, and structures are excluded from the cleanup plan because they fall under the purview of a different departmental program; and (15) according to the DOE official responsible for these areas, they are not in the cleanup plan because DOE is hesitant to transfer any more areas to the Office of Environmental Management, which already has a large workload and limited funding for cleanup.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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