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Cleanup agencies looking for more money as Hanford work continues

Cleanup agencies looking for more money as Hanford work continues Jan 26, 2009 

Komo News By SHANNON DININNY, Associated Press

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) – Each year, the federal government spends roughly $2 billion to rid the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site of toxic and radioactive waste………………………..The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. Today, it is the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, with cleanup costs expected to top $50 billion…………………Even more challenging in recent months: finding the money to complete the work and meet legal deadlines for cleanup.

The Energy Department has said it will miss 23 deadlines this year because there is insufficient money in the 2009 budget. Now, some U.S. senators are pushing the Obama administration to spend stimulus money to clean up not just Hanford, but all Cold War-era sites……………….In 1989, the state and federal government signed the Tri-Party Agreement to establish legal deadlines for completing all phases of the cleanup. Twenty years later, the two sides are embroiled in a lawsuit over missed deadlines and inadequate funding.

Cleanup agencies looking for more money as Hanford work continues | KOMO News – Seattle, Washington | Local & Regional

January 26, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive, uranium