While the Department of Energy has spent $164 billion since 1989 to remediate Cold War-related nuclear and hazardous waste, its environmental liability has grown, according to the agency’s Office of Inspector General.
The department’s environmental liability has more than doubled from a low of $176 billion in fiscal 1997 to $384 billion in fiscal 2017, the IG said in a Nov. 15 report, citing documents from the Government Accountability Office and the Energy Department.
The agency has responsibility for 83 percent of the U.S. government’s $465 billion liability, mostly due to nuclear waste cleanup. The spending over nearly three decades has enabled DOE’s Office of Environmental Management to complete cleanup of 91 defense nuclear facilities and to make progress in remediation of the remaining 16 properties.
The IG report does not go into great detail on reasons for the increased liability, but it does note the ongoing projects are complex and costly. “Cleanup activities can last for decades and often require first-of-a-kind solutions.”
“In the last 6 years alone, the Department has spent $35 billion,” mostly for treatment and disposal of waste and construction of facilities connected with this effort, the IG said.
The Hanford Site in Washington state and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina together account for about half of the DOE cleanup liability, the report said. In October, the Office of Environmental Management increased its latest estimate for the Hanford Site’s environmental liability by $82 billion to $242 billion, based on the 586-square-mile former plutonium production complex being fully remediated in the 2070s.
The Energy Department also estimates it faces a $50 billion price tag for treating and eventually disposing of its liquid and solid nuclear waste, with the most highly radioactive material located at Hanford, Savannah River, and the Idaho National Laboratory. Altogether there is 88 million gallons of liquid waste in underground tanks, and roughly 4,000 cubic meters of solid waste in bins at sites within the DOE weapons complex.
Report Stresses Need for Oversight of Contractors, Subs
The Office of Inspector General identified several other challenges for DOE, including management of contractors and subcontractors and updating infrastructure.
The Energy Department uses 90 percent of its budget on contractors, tops among federal government agencies, according to the report.
The number of active contracts at DOE rose more than 20 percent, to 14,455, at the end of fiscal 2018, according to the Inspector General. At the same time, holders of major DOE management and operations contracts reported that they parceled out some $375 million worth of business under subcontracts as of the end of the budget year on Sept. 30, 2018. That is about 5 percent more than reported for the previous 12-month period.
The Government Accountability Office has, in reports since 1990, cited inadequate contractor oversight as a major issue at DOE, which hinders cost controls. Calls to the Office of Inspector General hotline also suggest subcontractor oversight is a vexing issue for the department, the IG said.
