Summary

Delays in determining the specific nature of radioactive waste stored in underground tanks at the Energy Department's (DOE) Hanford site could drive up costs beyond the current $36 billion and jeopardize the development of effective treatment processes and facilities. Some of the Hanford tanks have leaked, and others hold potentially flammable waste. Characterization, the first major step in cleaning up tank wastes, involves determining the contents of the tanks through sampling and other means. Westinghouse Hanford Company, DOE's contractor, has yet to characterize any of the 177 Hanford tanks sufficiently to declare them ready for remediation. In addition, DOE did not meet its commitment to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to characterize the 54 tanks with known safety problems by October 1995. Although many factors have contributed to the delays, two stand out. First, despite more than 10 years of effort, DOE and Westinghouse have had difficulty resolving such basic questions as how to take reliable top-to-bottom samples from the tanks and how to reconcile conflicting information about a tank's contents. Second, DOE and Westinghouse have not had effective management systems for detecting and addressing problems with the characterization program. In some cases, managers were unaware of technical and safety problems; in others, they know about problems for a long time before taking action.

GAO found that: (1) over the past 10 years, DOE has spent over $260 million and made little definitive progress in characterizing the tank wastes at Hanford; (2) DOE has not been able to meet characterization deadlines for the 54 tanks with known safety problems; (3) the DOE contractor has been unable to characterize any of the 177 tanks as ready for remediation; (4) DOE and its contractor have had problems performing reliable top-to-bottom samples, gathering sampling data, reconciling tank contents, and developing an effective tank characterization management system; (5) disagreement exists as to what kind and how much information is needed to reliably predict actual waste quantities and build appropriate treatment facilities; (6) Congress, DOE, and private contractors need better sampling and characterization information to reliably predict total program costs; and (7) these uncertainties could undermine the savings DOE expects to realize by privatizing the tank waste remediation program.