United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-03-13 monographic deposited born digital 48 p. GA 1.13:RCED-98-80 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-80 P0b002ee1803917c9 f:rc98080 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-80 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-80 RCED-98-80 Hazardous substances Nuclear waste storage Environmental research Radiation exposure hazards Tanks (containers) Water pollution control Environmental monitoring Nuclear waste management Nuclear waste disposal DOE Vadose Zone Program DOE Hanford Future Site Uses Study Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) efforts to develop an understanding of conditions in the vadose zone, focusing on: (1) the adequacy of DOE's current understanding of the extent to which waste materials are moving through the vadose zone; and (2) DOE's current strategy for investigating vadose zone conditions.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) DOE's own reviews conclude what outside experts have been saying for some time; (2) DOE's understanding of how wastes move through the vadose zone to the groundwater is inadequate to make key technical decisions on how to clean up the wastes at the Hanford Site in an environmentally sound and cost-effective manner; (3) for many years, DOE assumed that wastes would move slowly, if at all, through the vadose zone; (4) therefore, DOE never issued a comprehensive plan to assess vadose zone conditions and funded few studies of the vadose zone; (5) outside experts have pointed out, however, that DOE cannot credibly estimate the site's long-term risk to the public or select the most efficient cleanup strategies unless it understands conditions in the vadose zone; (6) for example, the lack of knowledge about the vadose zone has major implications for how to go about retrieving the remaining wastes from tanks that have leaked or are leaking because at least one retrieval option would cause more liquid wastes to leak into the ground; (7) DOE has no strategy in place for investing the vadose zone; (8) DOE assigned low funding priority to most proposed studies of it, responded slowly to experts' recommendations for improving ongoing studies, did not integrate the information needs of the three organizational units responsible for cleanup activities, and does not know what information is needed to make key cleanup decisions; and (9) with the emerging evidence of waste migration from leaking tanks to the groundwater, DOE has begun to develop a strategy to investigate the vadose zone. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-80/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-80.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-80/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-80.pdf GAO/RCED-98-80 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-80 Letter Report GAO/RCED-98-80; Nuclear Waste: Understanding of Waste Migration at Hanford is Inadequate for Key Decisions; Hazardous substances Nuclear waste storage Environmental research Radiation exposure hazards Tanks (containers) Water pollution control Environmental monitoring Nuclear waste management Nuclear waste disposal DOE Vadose Zone Program DOE Hanford Future Site Uses Study