Impact of Providing Off-Site Economic Development Funds to Dependent Regions Surrounding the U.S. DOE's Major Nuclear Weapons Sites

Using an interregional econometric simulation model, a comparative analysis was made of the economic impacts of providing funds for environmental management, education, and infrastructure to the regions surrounding four of the United States Department of Energy's massive former nuclear weapons sites in Idaho, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Washington. Infrastructure funds were used to build sewers, water lines, roads, bridges, and maintain existing infrastructure. Education funds were invested in higher education, primary and vocational schools, books, and libraries. Environmental management funds were invested in on-site remediation. Education produced the most jobs and personal income per dollar of investment, followed by environmental management. Infrastructure, by far, produced the least impact. An important reason for these results is that the relatively small regional economies surrounding these sites are unable to supply the goods and services required for major expansions. Hence, there is considerable leakage of investments to other regions. The limitations of these models to capture feedbacks from investments is emphasized.