GAO report urges legal fixes to speed DOE nuclear waste cleanup
GAO's recommendations bind DOE, EPA and Congress to clarify Atomic Energy Act preemption and land-use assumptions, aiming to cut costs and schedule delays.
The Government Accountability Office released a report titled "Nuclear Waste: Addressing Legal and Regulatory Barriers Could Accelerate Cleanup and Reduce Costs," recommending that Congress, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) take specific actions to resolve legal and regulatory obstacles that are extending the nuclear waste cleanup program.
GAO found that DOE's cleanup work proceeds under three statutes, each with different requirements and regulators, and that some state regulatory actions appear to exceed authority granted under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Courts have recognized DOE's preemptive authority, but statutes and case law remain unclear, especially where mixed waste is involved. GAO says these disputes have added "billions in higher costs" for the federal government.
The report also notes that DOE sometimes bases cleanup decisions on unrealistic assumptions about future land and groundwater use, such as planning for residential use where none is planned. GAO cites the Rocky Flats site, where a 2001 designation as a national wildlife refuge reduced projected cleanup costs from an estimated $23 billion to about $10 billion.
Among GAO's six recommendations to DOE and EPA are: EPA should clarify guidance on future land-use assumptions; DOE should evaluate and document costs and schedules for multiple land-use scenarios; the agencies should develop options to address outdated groundwater standards; and an interagency task force of experts should be created to review high-priority decisions and legal disagreements. DOE concurred with two recommendations and did not concur with one related to evaluating multiple land-use assumptions; EPA concurred with two and did not concur with one concerning groundwater standards.
GAO argues that implementing these actions could allow DOE to address risks "decades sooner" and avoid "billions in additional costs," potentially shortening a cleanup timeline that could otherwise extend to 2100 and cost up to $840 billion.
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