Depleted uranium in the Energy Department's Cold War stockpile is worth about $7.6 billion, according to a Government Accountability Office report released today.

Depleted uranium, or uranium "tails," is what is left after natural uranium is "enriched" into uranium hexafluoride for use in nuclear weapons or power plants.

Soaring uranium prices have turned the waste into a financial asset, GAO said. Uranium prices have jumped nearly ten-fold in the last decade, reaching a high last July of $136 per pound. Uranium is currently trading at about $73 per pound.

In light of these prices, the leaders of congressional energy panels -- Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) -- asked GAO to analyze DOE's options for the tailings. Dingell's House Energy and Commerce Committee in February estimated the total uranium tailing inventory to be about 560,000 metric tons and worth about $2 billion. The House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the matter Thursday.

But GAO found the stockpile was larger and worth a lot more. Auditors said DOE stores about 700,000 metric tons of depleted uranium tails, about a third of which contains enough uranium to be "re-enriched" and used as nuclear fuel.

Using the lowest and highest uranium prices over the past eight years, the agency said the value of DOE tails could range from "almost nothing to more than $20 billion." Based on February prices, GAO estimated the uranium to be worth $7.6 billion.

For DOE to sell uranium tailings in their current depleted state, Congress would need to clarify a 1996 law to allow the department to sell or transfer not only enriched uranium but also tails, GAO said. DOE declined to provide its position on its legal authority to sell the depleted uranium in its present form.

The report also noted that storing the uranium costs about $4 million per year.

DOE released a broad policy statement on potential commercial transactions of the uranium in its stockpile two weeks ago. But GAO criticized the report, saying it should have included details on the types and quantities of uranium in the stockpile, a cost-benefit analysis of selling the uranium as-is or in an enriched form, or how DOE's decisions would affect the market.

The DOE policy statement on uranium noted it would cap any uranium sales into the market to make sure domestic enrichment facilities were not undercut and evaluated the possibility of using the uranium as a reserve in case of a significant disruption to world supplies.

DOE did not take a position on GAO's findings. It asked GAO to "explicitly outline" additional details an assessment should contain, the report said.

Click here to view the report.