Cleaning Up America’s Nuclear Weapons Complex (hundreds of $billions): 2023 Update For Governors

“Cleaning up the program’s environmental legacy will take many more decades, cost billions of dollars“

But why are all these Governers happy to keep making the toxic wastes?

Since the 1992 enactment of the Federal Facilities Compliance Act, the U.S. Department of Energy Office and states have worked together to clean up the nuclear weapons complex.

………….. Since the 1992 enactment of the Federal Facilities Compliance Act, the U.S. Department of Energy Office and states have worked together to clean up the nuclear weapons complex………

The National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices’ Federal Facilities Task Force (FFTF) is a forum in which states directly affected by the cleanup effort can communicate with each other and with DOE EM on waste disposal progress, priorities and challenges and stay informed about technology, policy and budget developments. The FFTF includes California, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.

Important progress has been made since DOE EM was established in 1989 and the FFTF was founded in 1993, including the establishment of legal frameworks and agreements for cleanup, completion of cleanup operations at 92 of 107 total sites and significant reduction in risk to public health and the environment at all the sites. In addition to successes across the complex, significant cleanup progress has been made in each FFTF state that hosts cleanup sites.

Examples of successes from each state are contained in the body of this report. Recent highlights since the 2015 version of this report include:

Removal of an entire uranium enrichment complex by 2020 at the Oak Ridge site in Tennessee, the first site in the world to do so;
Completion of Idaho’s Transuranic Storage Area-Retrieval Enclosure cleanup in 2017;
Early transfer of land and facility to a private developer for remediation and redevelopment in Missouri in 2017;……………………………………………………………………………

Progress continues, but substantial work remains. Completing the cleanup is projected to cost between $652 and $887 billion (in 2022 dollars) and last through at least 20782, assuming that all technical, regulatory and funding challenges are overcome.

Each site has its own unique environmental and regulatory challenges, but the states share the following five priority issues, each of which is supported by their adopted principles as noted after each issue:

Jointly Setting Funding Priorities……………………………………………………

Ensuring Compliance.…………………………………………….

Managing Waste Safely.………………………………………..

Improving Communication. …………………………

Developing Uniform Emergency Response Communication Protocols.……………………….

The development of America’s nuclear weapons program lasted several decades and directly affected communities across the country. Cleaning up the program’s environmental legacy will take many more decades, cost billions of dollars and require a strong partnership between the states and the federal government to complete.

Despite the high cost, lengthy timeline, and other challenges, states appreciate and are committed to their partnership with DOE EM to ensure the success of the cleanup mission. The FFTF looks forward to helping maintain this strong state-federal partnership, which will ultimately result in greater protections for human health and the environment for generations to come.