As is often the case, the Senate Armed Service Committee is using a must-pass defense policy bill to have a congressional watchdog delve into issues facing the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons cleanup complex.
Based on the bill report, here is a summary of what Senate Armed Services wants the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review at DOE’s $8-billion-plus Office of Environmental Management under the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Status of support infrastructure and repair costs. DOE’s deferred maintenance and repair estimates climbed 63% to $10.8 billion in 2022 from $6.6 billion in 2017. GAO should review the situation at the 15 Cold War and Manhattan Project sites and brief congressional defense committees by March 1, 2025 with a report to follow later.
Problems with large capital projects. The nuclear cleanup office has 20 ongoing large capital asset projects that together cost more than $39 billion, according to the NDAA report. “The committee notes that problems continue to emerge with some projects overseen by EM [Environmental Management].” GAO should brief defense committees on the cleanup office’s planning and oversight of big projects by March 1, 2025, with a formal written report to follow.
Early pilot test of DOE’s new high-level radioactive waste policy. The panel wants to hear about lessons gleaned from two pilot tests of DOE’s high-level waste reinterpretation at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In June 2019, DOE changed its interpretation of the term “high-level radioactive waste” as defined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. The change says some high-level waste poses a low-enough risk level to allow disposal at low-level waste facilities. Proponents of this approach claim it could save billions and the committee wants to identify barriers to wider employment of this policy. The GAO briefing should occur by March 1 with a report to follow.
Relocation and cleanup of the Moab, Utah uranium mill tailings pile. The tailings are being moved to an engineered landfill 30 miles away from the current locations near the Colorado River. DOE has said the work should be done around 2030. Again, defense committees should be briefed by GAO no later than March 1, with a report to follow.
Nuclear weapons cleanup lessons from other nations, such as France and the United Kingdom. The committee said it wants GAO to find out what Environmental Management is doing to “evaluate lessons learned from how other countries manage, treat, and dispose of defense nuclear waste.” The congressional briefing is due by June 1, 2025 with a report to follow.