GAO Questions Nuclear Safety Management at DOE Labs
In December 2002, the Science Committee leadership asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to review management challenges at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Labs. That request came on the heels of press reports regarding nuclear safety and security lapses and property and financial improprieties. Today, the first of two reports to come from that request was released by GAO.
GAO's report (Department of Energy: Mission Support Challenges Remain at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories) found that management of the labs has improved in project and facilities management since their last review (in 2001). However, GAO has significant concerns about nuclear safety management. GAO also expressed strong reservations regarding the approach the Department of Energy is taking to oversight of the labs. This last issue particularly resonates with Science Committee Members, who have seen similar approaches to agency "oversight" contribute to tragedy.
GAO reports that breakdowns in management controls at the Los Alamos National Laboratory are analogous to those found at NASA leading to the 2003 Space Shuttle accident. A key finding of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) report cited agency culture as contributing to the shuttle accident and GAO is concerned that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) labs have a similar agency culture that emphasizes cost-efficiency over safety concerns. GAO writes, "Specifically the (CAIB) report cited as one of the root causes of the accident the organizational culture at NASA, which emphasized mission rather than safety. In addition, under pressure to reduce costs, the agency had transferred responsibilities to the private sector while reducing federal oversight." GAO finds a similar pattern already in play at the NNSA labs, which may be accentuated by DOE's proposed "risk-based" approach to oversight. To its credit, GAO notes that the CAIB Report is now required reading for NNSA managers.
"I am concerned by GAO's observations regarding the organizational culture and pattern of management failures at Los Alamos. Particularly alarming is the parallel drawn to similar conditions found to exist at NASA prior to the shuttle accident," said Bart Gordon (D-TN), Ranking Member of the House Science Committee. "Having worked with CAIB on Congressional oversight of the shuttle investigation and seeing firsthand the dangerous effects of seemingly small management failures, I believe NNSA and the labs should take the GAO findings seriously. DOE's rejection of GAO's recommendations regarding how to strengthen oversight of the labs raises the question of whether the Department understands what they are reading in the CAIB report."
"I hope NNSA, the National Labs and contractors pay close attention to the findings and recommendations of this report," added Congressman Jerry Costello (D-IL), a senior Member of the Committee and co-requester of the report. "If NNSA is doing adequate oversight, as they say, then why do we continue to see management failures and nuclear safety infractions at the Labs?"
GAO cites past NNSA negligence in concerns that NNSA will not execute oversight of some of the more important long-term improvement areas such as deferred lab maintenance backlogs totaling $882 million and worker compliance with nuclear safety procedures, of which there were 51 reported incidents from 2001 to 2003. NNSA considers the GAO recommendations in this area unnecessary.
Gordon observed that, "GAO is to be commended for the in-depth work they have done on these complex management issues. I look forward to receiving the next report in this series, which will focus on financial transactions and controls at the National Labs."
Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), a co-requester of this study, will also issue a press release, which can be found at https://www.house.gov/science/.
The full report (GAO-04-370) is available from GAO (https://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04370.pdf).
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