WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The charges also involved diverting money from the nuclear cleanup to pay lobbyists, the release stated on Wednesday.
"The United States alleged that the defendants improperly billed the government for materials and services from vendors that did not meet quality control requirements, for piping and waste vessels that did not meet quality standards and for testing from vendors who did not have compliant quality programs," the release also noted.
23 November 2016, 20:55 GMT
The two contractors were hired to build a nuclear waste processing facility at the Hanford Project, which was established in 1943 to manufacture plutonium that was used in the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki at the close of World War II. Later, Hanford supplied much of the plutonium used in the US nuclear arsenal.
Today, the site is heavily contaminated with radioactive waste and is largely out of commission, according to published reports.
