Nuclear Waste

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the Department of Energy's (DOE): (1) progress in developing a quality assurance program for characterizing the Yucca Mountain, Nevada, site for possible use as a nuclear waste repository; and (2) interaction with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in identifying and resolving potential quality-related licensing problems.

GAO found that: (1) NRC oversight of quality assurance program development was limited due to problems and delays in DOE program development; (2) NRC identified several concerns about the program regarding document inadequacy, noncompliance with quality assurance standards, ineffective contractor auditing, general program management and development, and lack of direct control over the contractor's quality assurance programs; (3) NRC formally concluded that it lacked confidence in the program's adequacy; and (4) DOE acknowledged that, although its present quality assurance was inadequate, it would be ready for NRC verification before site characterization began. GAO also found that neither DOE nor NRC have sufficiently attempted to timely address these concerns, since: (1) DOE assigned a higher priority to other project activities and did not resolve any of the problems NRC identified; and (2) NRC did not aggressively pursue opportunities to more adequately assess the quality assurance program and did not raise unresolved issues to higher-level NRC or DOE management for possible resolution.

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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