Hanford Nuclear Tank Cleanup Costs Up to $15.2 Billion

The cost of cleaning up the Hanford nuclear reservation’s highly radioactive nuclear waste storage tanks has jumped to $15.2 billion--more than twice the original estimate, the contractor said Monday.

BNFL Inc. originally put a price tag of $6.9 billion on the cleanup project, then earlier this month increased it to nearly $13 billion.

“We recognize that the new price in all likelihood is not affordable,” said Paul Miskimin, president of BNFL, which is based in Fairfax, Va.

The company’s bid was based on spending $6 billion worth of private money to build a factory to turn Hanford wastes into a glass-like substance for storage.

The estimated cost of designing, building, operating and then deactivating the plant over the 20-year life of the proposed contract is now calculated at $15.2 billion, with the financing costs on the $6 billion accounting for about half the total, BNFL said.

“Few people now believe this is the right way to finance this job,” Miskimin said. The company is looking for ways to reduce the financing costs, presumably by using tax money for at least part of the project.

The 54 million gallons of radioactive waste are in 177 giant underground storage tanks, leftovers from the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. The waste threatens to contaminate the Columbia River watershed.

The sprawling Hanford reservation is 120 miles southwest of Spokane, near Richland.