Report: Feds need to do more to prevent failures at aging Washington nuclear weapons site

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The federal government needs to do more to prevent the failure of radioactively contaminated facilities at an aging nuclear weapons production site in Washington state.

That's according to a report by the Government Accountability Office released this week. The report says the partial collapse in 2017 of a tunnel containing radioactive waste from the Cold War on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation signaled problems with how the U.S. Department of Energy dealt with aging infrastructure.

Specifically, the report raised questions about the way obsolete facilities were evaluated, monitored and given priority for eventual cleanup and removal.