Cost of Corrosion – Government

Federal, State, and Local governments play increasingly important roles in the U.S. economy, with a 1998 GDP of approximately $1,105 billion. While the government owns and operates large assets under various departments, the Department of Defense (DOD) was selected because of its significant direct and indirect impact on the U.S. economy. A second government sector that was selected is nuclear waste storage under the Department of Energy (DOE). The cost of corrosion in these two sectors was used to estimate the cost of corrosion for the government category. This cost was $20.1 billion per year, which is 14.6 percent of the corrosion costs for all sector categories.