Energy Dept.’s Site Cleanup Put at $128 Billion

WASHINGTON —  The Energy Department said Wednesday it will cost at least $91 billion and perhaps as much as $128 billion in the next two decades to clean up all of its contaminated industrial and research facilities and bring them into compliance with environmental and safety laws.

The figures, contained in an analysis prepared at the request of Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) are the most comprehensive yet released by DOE in its effort to estimate the cost of environmental cleanups and upgrades for nuclear weapons plants and other DOE-controlled installations.

Previous Estimates Differ

Previous estimates have ranged as high as $110 billion, but that figure covered expenses for five decades and was limited to cleanup costs for the 17 major facilities in the weapons-production complex.

The analysis released Wednesday covers 45 DOE facilities, from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Louisiana to the Solar Energy Research Institute in Golden, Colo. It also includes, for the first time, estimates of what it will cost to build pollution-control plants and other facilities needed to comply with environmental, health and safety laws.

The report is a stark illustration of the magnitude of problems besetting the DOE facilities as well as the budgetary dilemma facing the incoming Bush Administration.

According to the DOE report, upgrading daily operations to assure safety will require $1.8 billion a year--twice the $900-million budget increase that the Reagan Administration has approved for the department in fiscal year 1990.