High Cleanup Costs at A-Weapons Plants Cited

Cleaning up environmental contamination and correcting existing problems at the nation’s nuclear weapons plants could cost between $40 billion and $70 billion, according to a government report released Friday.

The Department of Energy report said the cost could be as high as $110 billion to maintain the environmental, safety and health standards at the plants through the year 2045.

The report was released by Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), who had requested it as chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

‘Shameful Neglect’

Glenn said the report puts a price tag on the department’s “shameful neglect” toward the health and safety of the public.

“We have a choice of paying the price with money or with the health and safety of our children and grandchildren,” Glenn said. “Those who would choose to poison our own people in order to make nuclear weapons should be asked what the weapons are supposed to protect us from.”

The department issued two sets of estimates: an “expected” projection representing the most likely requirements for each site, and a “high” projection of what could be required to meet more-stringent interpretations of existing laws, regulations and policies that could reasonably be imposed on the defense plants.

“Within those bounds, the cleanup of contaminated sites and corrective actions could require between $40 billion and $70 billion in addition to an ongoing base program of $700 million per year,” the department concluded.

The department’s evaluation included 18 defense plants. It said most of the remedial cleanup actions could be completed within 20 years.

Environmental corrective actions could include such things as improvements in stack exhaust, construction of radioactive waste treatment facilities, upgrading drinking water supplies and other activities.

Decision Not Made

The department cautioned that the cost projections do not represent proposed action by the Reagan Administration. It said the report identifies “needs” and will be used to formulate long-range plans, but that a decision to adopt the actions has not been made.

By far the largest single price tag for cleanup and corrective actions is for the Hanford nuclear reservation at Richland, Wash. The facility, established in 1943, recycles uranium and extracts plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel.

The department estimated that cleanup and other costs at Hanford could reach $48 billion and that it could take until the year 2045 to complete the job.