YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — A new report released Monday shows that one of the federal government’s largest construction projects is unlikely to be completed under its nearly $12.3 billion budget.
The U.S. Department of Energy says some deadlines also are in jeopardy for the waste treatment plant at the Hanford nuclear reservation.
The plant, which is 60 percent complete, is being built to convert highly radioactive waste into a safe form for permanent disposal.
The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb. Today, it is the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, with cleanup expected to last decades.
