Dayton Daily News

By Jessica Wehrman | Monday, April 14, 2008, 01:39 PM

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability - a network of organizations that opposes new nuclear weapons production and advocates a speedier cleanup - took the
Department of Energy to task Monday, saying that when it sped up cleanup of the former Mound, Fernald and Rocky Flats nuclear sites, it broke a promise to spend extra money on cleanup of other former nuclear sites.

In 1998, according to Gerry Pollett, executive director of Heart of America Northwest Seattle, the energy department cut a deal with other nuclear sites to concentrate on the trio of sites - two in Ohio, one in Colorado - in exchange for the promise of additional federal expenditures when those sites were clean. Instead, he said, the Department of Energy spent that money on new nuclear proposals and “decelerated” cleanup of the other sites after they’d finished work on the three sites.

That decision helped to score the department an “F” on funding environmental obligations, according to the ANA.

The group is heavily critical of the Bush administration’s nuclear policies, including the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, which Congress de-funded last year.

But it’s not critical of all Republicans: Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield, along with Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., the ranking member and chair of the House
Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, will receive an award for their work bucking the administration’s nuke policies Tuesday night.

“They exhibited extraordinary leadership in challenging the DOE’s budget,” said Susan Gordon, director of the Alliance