Summary: Since the early 1980s, the Department of Energy (DOE) has been planning or building facilities to treat and dispose of 34 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste stored in underground tanks at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The program has experienced cost increases and is now expected to cost nearly $4 billion and run about five years behind schedule. Further cost increases and schedule delays are possible because of technical issues and other uncertainties. Much of the cost increases and schedule slippages resulted from ineffective program management. In addition, because of the way in which DOE reported funding and budget information about the program in the past, Congress did not have a clear picture of the cost increases and schedule slippages. DOE has taken steps to correct these problems. Two key pretreatment processes continue to be plagued by technical problems. At the same time, an alternative pretreatment method with lower operating costs has become available, raising questions about which pretreatment technology can come online quickest and offer environmental, safety, performance, and cost advantages. GAO recommends that DOE assess and compare the existing and alternative pretreatment technologies to see whether DOE should accelerate its planned efforts to replace the existing technology.
