
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 4, 1990                   TAG: 9007040195
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

COST RISES FOR CLEANUP OF NUCLEAR ARMS WASTE

The Energy Department said Tuesday it will need almost 50 percent more money and twice as many people to clean up nuclear weapons waste over the next five years than it previously thought.

Key members of Congress said they will provide the extra money, $28.6 billion instead of the $19.5 billion estimated last November, if the department can show it will be well-used.

A new department report said cleanup will cost about $6 billion in each of the next five years. It said the extra costs were mostly the result of the discovery of additional wastes and tougher regulations that make the government and its contractors more vulnerable to lawsuits.

The revised five-year total through fiscal year 1995 will exceed $28.6 billion, compared with the $19.5 billion DOE estimated in November, the report said. The price tag for 1992-1996 totals $31.6 billion, an estimate not available previously. The overall bill of $150 billion to $200 billion over the next 30 years, estimated by the General Accounting Office, was not changed.

- Associated Press

by CNB