GAO: DOE Prematurely Excludes Cheaper Nuclear Cleanup Options
GAO: DOE Is Prematurely Excluding Less Expensive Options for Nuclear Cleanup
I found that the Department of Energy often locks in specific solutions too early, ignoring cheaper alternatives for nuclear waste cleanup. Legal constraints and contractor influence further limit options, wasting billions. To fix this, I recommend involving independent experts before approving projects to ensure all viable, cost-saving paths are explored.
EM did not pursue a cheaper yet technically sound treatment for one type of radioactive waste at the Idaho National Laboratory due to an existing agreement with regulators.
- jjk166
This is an excellent example of how to communicate investigation findings. The summary is clear and succinct, there are illustrative examples readily understood by a layman, the recommendations are actionable and unambiguous, and the potential impact is quantified without promising some stupidly precise estimate. I've got some customers whose quality auditors could learn a lot from this.
- Animats
This isn't about radioactivity at all. It's about the millions of pounds of mercury used at the Y-12 plant at Oak Ridge,[1] resulting in a lot of low-level mercury contamination.
[1] https://ehss.energy.gov/ohre/new/findingaids/epidemiologic/o...
- CircuitSeuss
Tangential:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/07/nuclear-regulatory-c...
- actionfromafar
Ouch. Two billion dollars. That could have been put into much better use, imagine being able to fund the Iran war for one more day.
- random__duck
Now this is a future 100 billion dollar industry!
- ck2
sorry there is absolutely no federal agency that has not been compromised at this point
you'd have to prove to me that Russell Vought has not tampered with an agency for any statement emerging to be believed
even jobs numbers are not believed by wallstreet anymore
and surpreme court has now said only Fed is off limits to protect their own money
redo this report in 2029
- calvinmorrison
nuclear clean up is a joke. The emissions from chinas coal burning plants is 10000000000000000000000000000000000000 times worse than chucking nuclear waste in the desert at random
- Joel_Mckay
Sure, but has anyone ever built a container that lasts 30k years, and remains watertight?
Thus far, most off-site containment storage sites over 10 years old have failed to stop containment leaks, Radon gas diffusion, or hot-material fires. Fission reactors are a 1950's loss-leader technology, and only make sense for already uninhabitable areas like space. =3