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A top official of BNFL, the UK-based nuclear-fuels corporation, told a congressional hearing last week that the company is ready to tackle the waste left behind from the plutonium production that sustained the US nuclear arsenal during the Cold War.

BNFL is confident it can vitrify ten per cent of the 54 million gallons of liquid, solid and sludge waste held in 177 underground tanks at Hanford in Washington state, the ugliest nuclear waste problem in the United States. “There's no question that this can be done,” says Tom Crimmins, BNFL's US chief executive officer.

But the contract proposed by the Department of Energy (DoE) with BNFL was criticized at a hearing of the oversight subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee for leaving too much risk with government. The contract specifies that BNFL will design and build waste treatment and vitrification plants at Hanford to begin operation by 2007.

Despite the DoE describing the contract as a “privatization” of the Hanford waste problem, it was criticized by Joe Barton (Republican, Texas), chair of the subcommittee.

Barton said that BNFL would commit $300 million to the project but receive $1.8 billion in profits and fees. He promised that Congress will monitor the contract closely.

BNFL was left as the sole candidate after a rival contractor, Lockheed, was rejected by the DoE in May on technical grounds.

In August, the DoE signed a contract with BNFL to process ten per cent of the waste by 2017 for $6.9 billion. This price will be reviewed in two years, by which time BNFL is due to have built a pilot $25 million waste treatment facility and completed 30 per cent of the plant's design work.

BNFL will borrow capital from the private sector to build the vitrification plant, then DoE will pay it to vitrify the waste. Critics, including some environmentalists, say this is a false economy, as the DoE is liable for BNFL's debts if the contract is not completed.

A report from the General Accounting Office last week said “DoE's financial risks are significant”, and doubted that the department could adequately oversee the project.

But some critics go further. Gerald Pollet, director of the environmental group Heart of America Northwest, told the hearing the government could save $3 billion by contracting on a conventional, fixed-price basis.

But Crimmins says BNFL will carry the risk of cost overruns. He is backed up by the energy undersecretary Ernie Moniz, who says: “There's plenty of risk for the contractor — their equity is first in line.”

As well as the Hanford contract, BNFL is leading a consortium that hopes to take over the nuclear operations of Westinghouse, including management of the Savannah River site in South Carolina.

Environmental groups have criticized BNFL for its allegedly secretive culture and its track record on health and safety in Britain. But no one at the hearing objected to these or the fact that it is publicly owned by the British government.