Department of Energy (DOE) officials’ $240 billion estimate to clean facilities contaminated by decades of nuclear weapons production and research is too low, according to a congressional watchdog.
DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) has already spent $150 billion on cleanup efforts since its 1989 inception, according to GAO.
DOE’s estimate understates the actual cost, which faces annual increases, Government Accountability Office Natural Resources and Environment Director David Trimble told a Senate Subcommittee on Armed Services Tuesday.
“In 2015, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management estimated that cleanup of former weapons production sites would generally take until 2075 and cost $240 billion,” Trimble testified. “In March 2015, GAO found that that this estimate does not include all costs. For example, the costs for some contaminated facilities that have not yet been transferred to EM, which DOE acknowledges could cost billions to clean up.”
Trimble continued that “the estimated cost of the remaining environmental cleanup has been growing, even while EM has been spending billions on cleanup. For example, from fiscal years 2011 to 2015, EM spent a total of about $23 billion, while EM’s estimate of its remaining environmental liability rose by $77 billion.”
Inflation adjustments, improved estimates, revised plans and regulatory changes caused the increase, according to DOE.
The watchdog noted that DOE needed to improve its process to select which site to clean.
“Over the past two decades, we and others have pointed out the need for DOE to take a complex-wide, risk-based approach to its long-term cleanup strategy, which could reduce costs while also maximizing risk- reduction in a more timely way,” Trimble said.
He noted that GAO suggested reprioritizing the sites in 1995. The Omnibus Risk Review Committee repeated that recommendation in 2015.
“According to the report, inconsistent regulatory approaches across cleanup sites, selection of cleanup remedies that are not tailored to risks, and certain requirements in federal facility agreements and consent decrees cause disproportionate resources to be directed at lower-priority risks,” Trimble said.
DOE is falling behind its task to clean contaminated buildings, which threaten both the public and the environment, the agency’s inspector general reported in 2015.
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