Nuclear Health and Safety

For more than 40 years, the nuclear weapons complex run by the Department of Energy (DOE) has been disposing of hazardous and radioactive waste at sites across the country. DOE estimated in 1988 that its environmental restoration effort, a process to clean up these sites and meet federal and state standards, could cost as much as $64 billion. Although data are unavailable to determine aggregate cost growth associated with DOE's environmental restoration program, indications are that costs are soaring. In response to these increases, DOE began reviewing the causes of cost growth in 1990 to determine whether the cost escalation could be minimized. DOE, concluding that some cost growth has been unnecessary and should be better controlled, has begun (1) conducting program cost reviews, (2) developing procedures that require preparing documentation to support cost estimates, and (3) instituting cost-estimating review procedures. GAO questions the direction and pace of DOE's actions. Specifically, DOE still lacks some basic management tools, such as baselines for individual projects and an information system for monitoring cost growth, to properly understand and analyze environmental restoration cost growth. While these tools would not in themselves stem the program's cost growth, they would help DOE better identify and understand the reasons behind the cost increases, allowing DOE management to deal with the problem.

GAO found that: (1) since DOE has not updated or revised its 1988 total cost estimate for completing all environmental restoration work, GAO could not determine the aggregate cost growth associated with the environmental restoration program; (2) a comparison of DOE 5-year plans shows a 48-percent increase over the past 2 years in estimated funds necessary for fiscal years 1991 through 1995; (3) a detailed cost history for certain subprograms shows that between 1988 and 1991, overall estimated costs increased 61 percent; (4) DOE lacks such important management tools as comprehensive performance baselines for individual projects, a process for consistently estimating project costs, an information system capable of monitoring project-specific cost growth, and a system for sharing lessons-learned information; and (5) to better control cost growth, DOE has implemented initiatives to conduct program cost reviews, develop procedures that require preparing documentation to support cost estimates, and institute cost estimating review procedures.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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