Nathan Anderson

Department of Energy: Inspector General’s Budget Estimates for Audits of Certain Contractors’ Costs Need Improvement The Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General seeks to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse. In 2021 the OIG established a new division to audit...

#nukesky When DOE’s Office of the Inspector General set up a division for auditing DOE’s largest contractors in 2021, it estimated it would cost ~$19 million/year to operate… but, as of 2025, the cost turns out to be more like $43.7 million.

National Nuclear Security Administration: Progress Made Toward Fully Addressing Recommendations on Common Financial Reporting The National Nuclear Security Administration pays contractors billions of dollars annually to run 8 sites where the agency maintains and modernizes U...

NNSA struggles to identify the total costs of its nuclear weapons programs and compare costs across contractors, making it hard for Congress and the agency to oversee these costs. We’ve made numerous recommendations over the years to address this. #nukesky

Over half of WIPP’s mission-critical infrastructure is in poor condition—such as the salt shaft shown here, built in 1924—which jeopardizes the site’s waste disposal mission. We recommend some changes to help DOE better manage infrastructure at the site.

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is the nation’s only disposal site for defense-related transuranic nuclear waste. It’s projected to accept waste until the 2080s but much of its key infrastructure is decades old and needs repair/replacement. #nukesky www.gao.gov/products/gao...

Ukraine Nuclear Security and Safety Efforts Under harsh conflict conditions, Ukrainians have struggled to operate nuclear power plants and to secure nuclear and radioactive materials from...

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We recommend that DOE (1) require timely fraud risk assessments for programs that experience a changed operating environment and (2) formalize transition plans to better ensure Ukrainian partners can sustain nuclear security/safety efforts. DOE agreed with the recommendations.

In terms of ensuring the sustainability of its work, NNSA has transferred responsibility for some efforts to Ukrainian partners and is assessing the readiness of its Ukrainian partners to take responsibility for others. NNSA hasn’t yet formalized its plans to transition the efforts.

NNSA took steps to mitigate fraud risk for individual contracts but didn’t conduct an overarching fraud risk assessment, which would’ve helped it design fraud mitigation controls tailored to the changed environment it was operating in.

NNSA intensified existing efforts, including to prevent nuclear smuggling, and initiated new ones, such as supporting nuclear/radiological emergency preparedness. The State Dept, NRC, and DOD also supported a range of nuclear security/safety efforts in Ukraine.

Ukraine: DOE Could Better Assess Fraud Risks and Formalize Its Transition Plans for Nuclear Security and Safety Efforts Russia's 2022 invasion made it harder for Ukraine to safely operate its nuclear power plants and secure sites with radioactive materials, which could...

#nukesky Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine amplified nuclear security and safety risks. In response, US agencies built on their decades-long nuclear security & safety efforts in the region, largely with supplemental appropriations.

Optimizing DOE’s radioactive waste cleanup and disposal by using such models, and considering alternatives as we’ve previously recommended, could save the government billions.

We developed our own hypothetical model for one type of waste and found that DOE could find substantial savings by better incorporating costs into how it prioritizes and selects sites for waste storage.

What we do recommend is that DOE should develop an integrated strategy for disposing of all of this waste. A strategy informed by models that compare courses of action to find the safest and most cost-effective disposal options.

To clean up its 15 legacy research and production sites, the Department of Energy expects to generate more than 11 million cubic meters of radioactive waste, enough to fill 4,400 Olympic-sized swimming pools. We don’t recommend taking a swim.
www.gao.gov/products/gao...

The letter includes new priority recs on NNSA’s recruitment and retention of federal staff as well as management of its nuclear modernization programs. Implementing these recs could help meet deadlines for producing essential nuclear materials and components.

Hanford Cleanup: Alternatives for Treating and Disposing of High-Level Waste Could Save Billions of Dollars and Reduce Certain Risks The Department of Energy has been building facilities to treat highly radioactive waste at its Hanford site in Washington state. One facility will...

For one, we reiterate our rec that DOE pause work on the Hanford waste treatment plant pending an independent analysis on optimizing treatment & disposal based on physical characteristics of the waste. This could save billions of taxpayer dollars. www.gao.gov/products/gao...

We’re pleased that DOE has implemented 3 priority recs since last year, but we added 7 new ones from recent reports, including to address staffing shortages for mission-critical positions, and better manage and reduce costs of cleanup & disposal.

Legacy waste cleanup at Los Alamos National Laboratory

A glovebox at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Each year we send a letter to DOE reiterating our highest-priority recommendations. This year’s letter discusses 30 recs for addressing key challenges related to DOE’s contract management and environmental liability, among others. www.gao.gov/products/gao...

National Nuclear Security Administration: Explosives Program Is Mitigating Some Supply Chain Risks but Should Take Additional Actions to Enhance Resiliency Nuclear weapons require high explosives to trigger nuclear detonation. The National Nuclear Security Administration needs new explosive components to...

Nuclear weapons need chemical explosives, but NNSA’s supply chain for explosives is vulnerable to risks, like aging facilities, a changing regulatory environment, and budgetary constraints.

Small Business Contracting: National Nuclear Security Administration Needs Increased Contractor Oversight to Reduce Reporting Errors The federal government aims to award at least 20% of contract dollars to small businesses. The National Nuclear Security Agency and 6 of its...

Small business can involve big numbers. To comply with government contracting goals, NNSA reported awarding $16.8 billion in small business contracts from 2018-2022. But of that amount, more than $1 billion went to businesses that were not actually small. #nukesky

National Nuclear Security Administration: Reporting on Industrial Base Risks Needs Improvement The National Nuclear Security Administration relies on contractors for thousands of parts for the nuclear weapons stockpile. However, NNSA faces risks...

Congress requires NNSA to report on risks facing its industrial base—its supply chain, ops & facilities, logistics & transport, & workforce. While NNSA has processes to manage these risks, it hasn’t communicated priorities or resource needs for doing so. #nukesky

Reform doesn’t come easily to the agency that guards the nuclear weapons stockpile The National Nuclear Security Administration is among the agencies trying to reform themselves as it requires certain best practices to be in place.

On the radio! #nukesky

The Comptroller General is testifying on this now – you can watch his testimony on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee website.

Among other things, we found that DOE needs to improve its environmental liability estimates; increase its federal workforce capacity to address clean-up issues; and develop some formal action plans to address environmental liabilities – so a lot to do in this high-risk area to move off the list!

This year, we rated DOE and DOD as doing OK in the areas of leadership commitment, monitoring, and demonstrated progress, and as not doing well in the areas of capacity and action plan.

One of our high-risk areas is the US government’s environmental liability, which is how much it will cost various US government agencies to clean up environmental contaminants. DOE and DOD make up the vast majority of the total liability.

National Nuclear Security Administration: Fully Incorporating Leading Practices for Agency Reform Would Benefit Enhanced Mission Delivery Initiative The National Nuclear Security Administration is overseeing a $200 billion nuclear modernization effort and hasn't been this busy since the Cold War...

New today @GAO: To meet the challenges of its $200 billion nuclear modernization, NNSA conducted a study that identified areas for reform, such as project management & employee retention. NNSA took steps to implement these reforms, but cannot say whether they’re working.
www.gao.gov/products/gao...

You’re busy people, #nukesky. We get that. To keep you up to date on all NNSA’s ongoing weapons work, we present our first “nuclear weapons quick look”—2-page overviews of all 6 of NNSA’s ongoing weapons modernization programs (and one that’s planned).
www.gao.gov/products/gao...

We recommend that, among other things, Naval Reactors conduct an independent root cause analysis of Spent Fuel Handling Project cost increases & schedule delays. Such an analysis would give them better info to oversee the contractor & prevent future increases and delays.

We found that Naval Reactors’ cost & schedule estimates weren’t fully credible or comprehensive, and the office hasn’t done an independent root cause analysis on the cost increases or quality assurance problems.