A bleak funding picture across the country
Nationally, the news isn't much better. Chemical & Engineering News reports this week that cleanup of nuclear weapons sites across the country is underfunded, but DOE is cutting the program. According to the magazine,
"An audit shows that the cost to clean up extensive radioactive and hazardous waste contamination is likely to be as high as $305 billion, more than $50 billion higher than the Administration's earlier estimate. It also may take until 2062 to finish the job—more than 20 years longer than original estimates. Yet this year's cleanup budget proposal is $5.5 billion, the lowest level in the last 15 years for the huge cleanup program."
DOE officials acknowledge that the cuts for 2009 mean the department will not be able to meet cleanup milestones in Idaho and elsewhere. Assistant Energy Secretary James Rispoli said recently in a presentation that funding levels requested for 2009 mean that DOE "would not meet some of the milestones and obligations contained in all of the environmental agreements that have been negotiated over many years with regulators . . . regardless of the approach that is chosen and its associated level of funding."