ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL CALLS FOR MASSIVE CHANGES AT NNSA

Calling the National Nuclear Security Administration “big government on steroids,” the Albuquerque Journal yesterday blasted the agency for massive cost overruns on major projects and implored a Congressionally mandated governance panel to recommend massive changes for the semi-autonomous arm of the Department of Energy. “The panel should come up with a well-thought-out plan to either overhaul NNSA from top to bottom or outright kill it and let the DOE take on its oversight duties,” the Albuquerque Journal said in a Sept. 17 editorial. The newspaper noted that 10 of its major projects are a combined $16 billion over budget and 38 years behind schedule. “There’s no doubt NNSA’s work is critical to U.S. national security, but taxpayers also are tired of watching their money being thrown at an insatiable beast that too often fails to deliver results,” the newspaper said. “As long as the NNSA remains impervious to calls for improving its culture and tightening up its accountability, the inefficiencies and waste will keep coming.”