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GAO-09-697R 1 (2009-06-02)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaannr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: i ~GAO Acountabi ty I Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 June 2, 2009 Congressional Committees Subject: Nuclear Waste: DOE's Environmental Management Initiatives Report Is Incomplete The Department of Energy (DOE) spends billions of dollars annually to clean up nuclear waste at sites across the nation that produced nuclear weapons from the 1940s through the end of the Cold War. This waste can threaten public health and the environment. For example, contaminants at DOE's Hanford site in Washington have migrated through the soil into the groundwater, which generally flows toward the Columbia River. The river is a source of irrigation for agriculture and drinking water for downstream communities as well as a major route for migrating salmon. Cleanup projects decontaminate and demolish buildings, remove and dispose of contaminated soil, treat contaminated groundwater, and stabilize and dispose of solid and liquid radioactive wastes, among other things. DOE's Office of Environmental Management currently oversees more than 80 of these cleanup projects, primarily at government- owned, contractor-operated sites throughout the nation. Some of these highly complex projects have completion dates beyond 2050. We have issued numerous reports on DOE's management of its cleanup projects. For example, since 2006 we have issued 12 reports examining DOE's contract and project management. In March 2009, we testified that 9 of the 10 major cleanup projects that we reviewed had experienced cost increases-in total, DOE estimated that it needed an additional $25 billion to $42 billion to complete these cleanup projects.' We also reported in September 2008 that these major cleanup projects had experienced delays from 2 to 15 years.2 These problems were the result of inconsistent application of project management tools and techniques on the part of DOE and its contractors. Furthermore, since 1990, we have designated DOE's contract management as a high- risk area for fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement because of the department's record of inadequate management and oversight of its projects. In January 2009, we narrowed the scope of this high-risk area to focus on the two major offices remaining within DOE that continue to experience significant problems-the Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration 'GAO, Department of Energy: Contract and Project Management Concerns at the National Nuclear Security Administration and Office of Environmental Management, GAO-09-406T (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 4, 2009). 2GAO, Nuclear Waste: Action Needed to Improve Accountability and Management of DOE's Major Cleanup Projects, GAO-08-1081 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 26, 2008). GAO-09-697R DOE Environmental Management Initiatives

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