Trump officials blamed for slowing down Hanford cleanup
The slow pace of cleaning up the nation's largest cache of radioactive waste left over from the production of nuclear weapons is frustrating Washington state officials from both major political parties, who blame the Trump administration for not doing more.
The U.S. Department of Energy recently proposed hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts for cleaning up the vast Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeastern Washington, even though the estimated cost of the cleanup has at least tripled and could reach more than $600 billion.
"That's a huge, huge cost increase," said Tom Carpenter, director of the watchdog group Hanford Challenge.
At a hearing in Washington, D.C., last week, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray questioned Energy Secretary Rick Perry's assertion that his agency can still meet a legally-binding cleanup schedule despite the proposed budget cuts. Much of the site's aging infrastructure is deteriorating, including underground waste storage tanks and tunnels.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-officials-blamed-for-slowing-down-hanford-cleanup/ar-BBVGFoj
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