The Environmental Management (EM) program was created in 1989 to address the environmental legacy of the nation's Cold War nuclear production. The program encompasses a wide range of wastes and materials at sites scattered throughout the nation. It includes the remediation and processing of approximately: (1) 25 tons of plutonium; (2) 108 tons of plutonium residues; (3) 88 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste; (4) 2,500 tons of spent nuclear fuel; (5) 137,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste; (6) 1.3 million cubic meters of low-level waste; and (7) 324 nuclear facilities, 3,300 industrial facilities, and hundreds of radiological facilities. As noted, the EM program was created to remedy the legacy of the Cold War's impact on the environment--not simply to manage the waste. Over the past 10 years, the program has experienced difficulty in planning and carrying out this mission. As a result, in just 4 years the life-cycle cost of the program increased from $147 billion to $225 billion, and if EM were to continue business as usual, the cost could easily increase to $300 billion.