Wyden Slams DOE for Wasting Millions of Taxpayer Dollars at Hanford Nuclear Site

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

GoLocalPDX News Team

Today, Senator Ron Wyden, (D- Ore.), demanded an investigation into contracting practices at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hanford nuclear site in Washington State. Internal documents show millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on incomplete work at the site.

He criticized the DOE for its lack of oversight, citing an internal report from Bechtel National, Inc., on January 9, 2015, that shows that about $277 million of taxpayer money has been spent on work orders that have not been completed at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant.

The report also shows that approximately $5.3 million a year is spent to keep the contracts in place for just one portion of the plant known as the Pretreatment Plant. The Waste Treatment Plant is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, and work on the Pretreatment Plant has been halted since 2012 because of unresolved design and construction problems, according to Wyden's office.

In a letter today, Wyden asked the DOE Inspector General Greg Friedman to investigate Bechtel’s activities at the Hanford site and what role the DOE played in potential mismanagement of taxpayer funds.

“The DOE has been mismanaging the cleanup at Hanford for three decades,” said Wyden. “I am outraged that the Department claims it doesn’t have enough money to clean up Hanford yet allows such an egregious waste of taxpayer dollars. Taxpayers deserve to know how their money has been spent and the citizens of the Pacific Northwest deserve to have this place cleaned up.”

Wyden has repeatedly called on the Department of Energy to improve oversight and safety practices at Hanford, starting with a law he wrote more than 20 years ago that required the DOE to monitor risks of leaks from single-shelled storage tanks, according to Wyden's office.

Wyden Slams DOE for Wasting Millions of Taxpayer Dollars at Hanford Nuclear Site

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