http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/details.php?rptno=GAO-04-692
Uranium Enrichment:
Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund Is Insufficient to Cover Cleanup Costs
GAO-04-692
July 2, 2004
Summary
Decontaminating and decommissioning the nation's uranium enrichment plants, which
are contaminated with hazardous materials, will cost billions of dollars and
could span decades.
In 1992, the Energy Policy Act created the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination
and Decommissioning Fund
(Fund) to pay for the plants' cleanup and to reimburse licensees of active uranium
and thorium processing sites for part of their cleanup costs.
This report discusses (1) what DOE has done to reduce the cleanup costs authorized
by the Fund, and (2) the extent to which the Fund is sufficient to cover authorized
activities.
For example, one recommendation suggested that DOE develop three plans--namely,
headquarters level, plant-complex level, and site level--that address and integrate
the decontamination and decommissioning of the facilities.
Only one plant has developed a plan, however.
Additionally, DOE is pursuing an accelerated, risk-based cleanup strategy at
the plants that it believes will reduce cleanup costs.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has taken steps to reduce cleanup costs by taking
actions that address recommendations made by the National Academy of Sciences
and by pursuing an accelerated, risk-based cleanup strategy at the plants. In
some cases, however, DOE has only partially addressed the Academy's recommendations.
According to DOE officials, an accelerated,risk-based strategy will accelerate
time frames for cleanup, and establish "realistic cleanup criteria" in
DOE's regulatory cleanup agreements.
Despite DOE efforts to reduce costs, we found that based on current projected
costs and revenues, the Fund will be insufficient to cover the cleanup activities
at the three plants.
Specifically, our Baseline model demonstrated that by 2044, the most likely time
frame for completing cleanup of the plants, costs will have exceeded revenues
by $3.5 billion to $5.7 billion (in 2004 dollars).
Importantly, we also found that the Fund would be insufficient irrespective of
which model we used, including models that estimated the final decommissioning
at the plants under (1) accelerated time frames, (2) deferred time frames, or (3)
baseline time frames, and with additional revenues from federal government contributions
as authorized under current law.
Because the Paducah and Portsmouth plants are now estimated to cease operations
by 2010 and 2006, respectively, extending the Fund by an additional 3 years would
give DOE an opportunity to develop plans, including more precise cost estimates,
for the cleanup of these plants and to better determine if further Fund extensions
will be necessary.
