Potentially deadly radioactivity and toxins have gone beyond the borders of most, if not all, major nuclear weapons sites. Workers continue to deal with several high-risk trouble spots, including radioactive sludge tanks at the Hanford site which regularly emit explosive gas, and cracked and leaking containers of plutonium at the Rocky Flats plant. Proper cleanup of DOE nuclear weapons sites is hampered by congressional budget cuts, insufficient funding requests by the Clinton Administration, and misplaced priorities. Even with the contractor and efficiency reforms which the EM program has recently implemented, the program will suffer funding shortfalls over the next five years based on the President's budget request. As a result, some sites will not be in compliance with environmental laws, health and safety standards, and negotiated cleanup commitments.
Further delays make the task still more challenging and more expensive.
At the same time funding for DOE Environmental Management is getting cut, funding for DOE Defense Programs is getting padded. But the program goes far beyond that, and provides scientists with the capability to design new warheads and make major modifications to existing ones. The DOE is clearly extending the President's policy beyond what is technically required. The contamination of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex presents a real threat to the security and safety of citizens and should be addressed by policymakers with the same level of seriousness accorded to other national security programs. New weapons facilities and subcritical testing activities will exacerbate the already-formidable contamination and cleanup burden within the nuclear weapons complex.