Many previously identified problems continue to plague the complex waste treatment plant being built to immobilize much of the 54 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste stored at the U.S. Energy Dept.’s Hanford site in Washington state, prompting government investigators to recommend stopping work on the $17-billion project, underway since 2002, when those problems recur.
The U.S. Navy’s four public shipyards have accumulated nearly $5 billion worth of deferred maintenance and restoration projects that could take as long as 19 years to rectify, according to a recently published U.S. Government Accountability Office report.