[CPEO-MEF] RADIATION: GAO report on the status of the nuclear weapons complex cleanup

[Lenny Siegel]

Environmental Cleanup:
Status of Major DOE Projects and Operations

Government Accountability Office
GAO-22-104662
May 4, 2022

What GAO Found

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) manages DOE's radioactive and hazardous waste cleanup program across 16 sites (see fig.), using both capital asset projects and operations activities.

• According to EM data, there were 23 active capital asset projects as of December 2020, 15 of which GAO selected for this review. The 15 capital asset projects are located at seven sites and had total project costs ranging from $127 million to $16.8 billion. These projects include a variety of cleanup activities, ranging from constructing the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford, WA, site to demolishing a contaminated building at Portsmouth, OH.

• According to EM officials, as of September 2021, the agency is managing 76 operations activities at the 16 active cleanup sites. GAO selected 11 EM operations activities—one at each of 11 sites—with estimated costs ranging from $1 billion to $180.5 billion. These operations activities cover a variety of mission activities, such as deactivating and decommissioning a nuclear facility and remediating soil and groundwater.

…

For the entire highlights page and a link to the full report, go to
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-104662

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel at cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)