The Energy Department could save tens of billions of dollars if it adopted the Government Accountability Office’s recommendation to urge Congress to further clarify the meaning of high-level radioactive waste, the watchdog said.
DOE’s Office of Environmental Management manages waste from spent nuclear fuel reprocessing as high-level radioactive waste unless it can be classified as low-level radioactive waste or transuranic waste, which are expected to be less expensive to treat and dispose of. Classification depends on the statutory definition of high-level radioactive waste in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the ...