Unclear Radioactive Waste Definition Costing Billions, GAO Says

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 ...