One of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nonproliferation technology development programs does not sufficiently track its project outcomes, the Government Accountability Office found in a newly released report.
The NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN) implements programs worldwide meant to eliminate and help prevent the spread of sensitive nuclear material. DNN features two programs for research and technology development projects – its Research and Development (R&D) program for nuclear detonation and proliferation detection technologies, and its Nonproliferation and Arms Control (NPAC) program for international nuclear safeguards activities.
The report said the R&D and NPAC programs obligated a total of over $1.1 billion for 511 research and technology development projects from fiscal 2012 through 2015. These projects usually last about three years from beginning to end, GAO noted.
Congressional auditors found that while NPAC tracks and documents its project results, R&D, the larger of the two programs, does not do so consistently “to determine whether its projects result in technologies that have been transitioned to or deployed by end users.” End users include the U.S. Defense Department, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and other organizations.
As a result, “NNSA is unable to demonstrate to Congress and the public the full extent to which its projects result in technologies that are transitioned, deployed, or otherwise used toward fulfilling the nation’s nuclear nonproliferation goals,” the GAO said.
The GAO examined a sample of 91 research and technology development projects and found that 88 of technologies advanced – by building instrument hardware, for example – and that of those, 33 resulted in the technologies being transitioned, or given to outside users for further development or deployment. Seventeen of those then resulted in deployed technologies, the GAO said, such as a uranium enrichment monitoring tool that was used in Iran. Without tracking technology transition and deployment results, it said, “NNSA is unable to demonstrate the full results of its projects.”
The GAO interviewed NNSA officials who said the agency does not consistently track the R&D program’s outcomes in part because end users generally take over the final development and production steps after DNN provides those users with the initial knowledge.
The report recommended the NNSA administrator direct the R&D program to better track its transitioned and deployed technologies, and direct both the R&D and NPAC programs to document their assessments of the final results of their projects compared with those programs’ initial targets.
The NNSA said in response that by June it will complete an assessment of the R&D program’s portfolio “to determine to what extent transition and deployment data are readily available for specific projects and include additional information on those projects as part of its performance reporting.”
