Nuclear Weapons Complex

Establishing a National Risk-Based Strategy for Cleanup Gao ID: T-RCED-95-120 March 6, 1995

From the 1940s, when the United States began to develop nuclear weapons, through the late 1980s, the government gave little attention to the environmental consequences of its activities. As a result, many Energy Department (DOE) sites are now contaminated with radioactive and hazardous wastes, and DOE faces the largest, most, complex cleanup in the country--estimated to cost up to $1 trillion. Although DOE received more than $23 billion between 1989 and 1993 to clean up contamination at the nuclear weapons complex, the agency has yet to actually complete the cleanup of a major facility. DOE's progress has been impeded by unrealistic agreements with the Environmental Protection Agency and the states to bring the facilities into compliance with federal environmental laws.



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