Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
11/20/2015
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Inspector General (IG) in a report Thursday added infrastructure modernization to its fiscal 2016 list of management challenges facing the department. The new addition signals a need for DOE to focus on the issue, along with existing challenges in contract management, cybersecurity, safeguards and security, stockpile stewardship, environmental cleanup, and nuclear waste disposal, the report said.
According to the IG, the department estimated that as of fiscal 2014 it needed a total of over $6 billion to address deferred maintenance, or maintenance that was either not performed or delayed. The report cautioned that the DOE’s aging infrastructure could result in “inadequate functionality for mission performance; negative effects on environment, safety, and health; higher maintenance costs; and problems with recruiting and retaining high-quality scientists and engineers.” It highlighted the challenge of safely carrying out the National Nuclear Security Administration’s mission in “Manhattan Project–era buildings with deteriorating utility systems and structural components,” and said DOE has issued guidance for funding of fiscal 2016 infrastructure maintenance at an amount that will prevent growth in the deferred maintenance backlog.
The IG noted departmental contract administration problems, citing as an example the settled allegations that the Sandia National Laboratories contractor used federal funds to lobby for a noncompetitive extension of its agreement. It highlighted recent federal cybersecurity breaches – in particular the 388 successful breaches to DOE computer systems in fiscal 2015 – as cause for concern. A June 2015 audit of the NNSA’s information systems revealed weak cybersecurity controls. The report also identified as “high risk” the NNSA’s issues with safeguards and security, noting that a February report found inadequate controls of classified information at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).
The IG called for operational efficiency improvements to the NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program, which maintains the nuclear deterrent without full-scale explosive testing. It noted that LANL experienced delays in conducting hydrotests due to inadequate implementation of project management tools. It also cited challenges in DOE’s environmental cleanup mission, including delays in hazard remediation at the Paducah Site in Kentucky and nuclear waste disposal problems such as the suspension of activity at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico last year following a radiological release.
The NNSA said by email that it agrees with the IG’s findings “that these are important areas for management attention and emphasis going forward.”
