Dive Summary:

• The Savannah River Site's salt-waste processing plant was originally scheduled to have is design upgrades completed in 2009, but material shortages have delayed completed.
• Preliminary U.S. Department of Energy estimates placed the project's cost at $440 million, a figure that was later revised to $900 million and has since ballooned to $1.3 billion.
• In addition to budgetary problems, the delays pose a potential health risk since the plant was expected to clean up some of the world's most dangerous atomic waste could be delayed.

From the article:

The target date for the high-level-waste cleanup is 2027, an Energy Department spokesman said. “That date is going to be in jeopardy based on the delay in the salt-waste processing facility and other fiscal issues,’’ Energy Department spokesman Jim Giusti said.

SRS is a 310-square-mile federal nuclear weapons complex near Aiken that employs about 12,000 people. Materials produced at the site are key ingredients in nuclear bombs. ...