The Roy Process
Radioactive Waste Neutralization
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The Roy Process |
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
U.S. Audit Faults Nuclear Waste Cleanup Efforts WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (AP) The Energy Department has spent $23 billion during the past five years to clean up nuclear waste sites, but little cleanup has resulted, partly because of resistance to new technology, a Government audit said today. “New technologies are not being seriously considered or used to clean up D.O.E.’s contaminated sites,” the General Accounting Office reported. “Senior headquarters environmental officials told us that new technologies have not been rigorously evaluated, much less employed.” Energy Secretary Hazel R. O’Leary requested the review by the accounting office, the investigative agency of Congress, in January 1993. The study was begun almost immediately and lasted until this June. Department officials said today that they were already taking steps to address the concerns. “We basically agree there are problems with getting innovative technology implemented due to a lot of different barriers, as pointed out in the report," said Gerald G. Boyd, deputy assistant energy secretary for technology Development. Mr. Boyd said the department was working with its contractors “to try to help them understand how new technology can be a benefit to them and not a barrier” to meeting cleanup deadlines. Resistance to the new techniques, the accounting office said, is partly a result of the department’s reliance on the recommendations of on-site contractors who have investments in existing cleanup practices, as well as local governments that stand to benefit from economic development tied to extended cleanup schedules. In addition to health and safety threats, the problem is of concern to taxpayers because it will cost an estimated $300 billion over 30 years to clean up the radioactive and hazardous waste at the former nuclear weapons plants around the country. Current cleanup methods “are often ineffective, extremely expensive” and offer only short-term solutions, the accounting office said. “Developing less costly and more effective cleanup technologies may be the only way the nation can afford to clean up the vast amounts of waste generated by the nation’s nuclear weapons production complex,” Over the past 40 years, the Energy Department and its predecessors disposed of more than a billion cubic feet of hazardous and radioactive waste at the weapons plants nationwide. The waste was often poured directly into the soil or stored in drums or cribs that have deteriorated, resulting in liquid contaminants’ seeping into the soil and ultimately reaching the ground water.
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