Skip to main content

Radioactive Waste: DOE Has Acted to Address Delay in New Facility at Livermore Laboratory, but Challenges Remain

GAO-03-558 Published: May 15, 2003. Publicly Released: May 16, 2003.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, generates radioactive and hazardous wastes in the course of its research dealing with nuclear weapons. The laboratory's new Decontamination and Waste Treatment Facility is a $62 million complex that includes buildings designed for both temporarily storing waste and treating it for off-site disposal. Although construction was completed in 2001, the storage building did not begin operating until September 2002, and the treatment buildings remain unused to this day. GAO was asked to identify the cause of the delay in initiating storage and treatment operations at the facility, the effects of the delay in initiating treatment operations, and the steps taken to ensure that the latest estimated date for initiating treatment operations at the facility can be met.

Full Report

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Federal facilitiesHazardous substancesDecontaminationNuclear waste storageRadioactive wastesSchedule slippagesWaste treatmentAircraftCombat readinessNuclear weapons