YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — A federal audit has raised concerns about cleanup delays at a Hanford nuclear reservation plant where workers produced more than half the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
The U.S. Department of Energy manages cleanup at Hanford in south-central Washington. It’s the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site.
The agency’s Office of Inspector General raised concerns that decontaminating and demolishing more than 60 buildings at Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant was behind schedule as of Sept. 30.
According to the federal contract for the work, the project cost was pegged at $528 million between 2009 and 2013. But the report Monday also says the project cost has grown to $718 million — a 36 percent increase — despite receiving $330 million in federal stimulus money to speed the work.
