Nuclear Waste Cleanup: Closer Alignment with Leading Practices Needed to Improve Department of Energy
Program Management
GAO | June 4, 2024
The Department of Energy has spent over $215 billion since 1989 to clean up hazardous and radioactive waste. It estimates that the remaining work will cost about $675 billion more.
DOE recognizes that remaining work must be safe and cost-effective and has incorporated some program management leading practices as it implements a cleanup plan. For example, DOE is developing life-cycle cost and schedule estimates to track progress and monitor cleanup at individual sites. But it's hard to ensure that the cleanup program is running efficiently without applying these leading practices program-wide. We recommended doing so.
Read the full report here.
National Nuclear
Security Administration:Guidance Enhancements Could Improve Contractors’ Diversity Plans
GAO | June 21, 2024
The National Nuclear Security Administration relies on about 59,000 contractor employees to carry out its mission across 8 sites. We reviewed NNSA's May
2023 report on contractor employee workforce diversity. This included demographic data from each site and a small amount of summary information from the contractors' diversity plans. We also looked at the diversity plans, which generally addressed existing federal guidance. But the guidance could be improved to ensure that the contractors' plans address all leading diversity management practices, including diversity-focused training and succession planning. Our recommendations address this.
Read the full report here.
Priority Open
Recommendations: Department of Energy
GAO | June 28, 2024
Each year, we make more than 1,000 recommendations to help the federal government save money, address issues on our High Risk List, and significantly improve government operations. This letter to the Department of Energy outlines 27 open recommendations that it should prioritize. For example, DOE should coordinate processes for providing oversight of large nuclear energy demonstration projects, which involve
new types of nuclear reactors. These projects are vital for the future of the nation's electricity generation.
DOE implemented 7 priority recommendations we identified last year. We regularly update priority recommendations here.
Read the full report here.
National Nuclear Security Administration:Actions Needed to Improve Integration of Production Modernization Programs and Projects
GAO | July 9, 2024
The National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Production Modernization effort consists of eight programs and 16 related and ongoing major projects. These programs and projects are managed by separate offices and are subject to different management requirements. However, NNSA officials told GAO
that each program and its associated projects must be integrated to achieve NNSA's modernization goals and that they use established teams and meetings for this purpose as well as schedule and cost information.
Read the full report here.
