Nuclear Health and Safety: More Can Be Done to Better Control Environmental Restoration Costs
RCED-92-71
Published: Apr 20, 1992. Publicly Released: Jun 04, 1992.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the: (1) degree of cost growth associated with the Department of Energy's (DOE) environmental restoration program; and (2) steps DOE can take to better manage and control cost growth.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Energy | To improve the management of the environmental restoration program and better control cost growth, the Secretary of Energy should complete baselining of the environmental restoration program as soon as possible and monitor this baseline to ensure that changes made are in accordance with departmental guidance. |
Closed – Implemented
DOE completed baseline development and validation in June 1992.
|
| Department of Energy | To improve the management of the environmental restoration program and better control cost growth, the Secretary of Energy should develop guidance specifying a consistent cost estimating process to be used throughout DOE and assess annually which environmental restoration projects should receive check estimates. |
Closed – Implemented
DOE has developed a consistent cost estimating process and has committed to validating cost estimates annually.
|
| Department of Energy | To improve the management of the environmental restoration program and better control cost growth, the Secretary of Energy should establish a reliable management information system that will monitor the degree of and the reasons for environmental restoration cost growth and resolve any incompatibility between this system and individual information systems being developed by DOE field offices. |
Closed – Implemented
DOE has developed a progress tracking system to track actual cost and schedules versus planned cost and milestones.
|
| Department of Energy | To improve the management of the environmental restoration program and better control cost growth, the Secretary of Energy should, once the lessons-learned environmental restoration information system is developed, monitor its use to ensure that bad as well as good experiences are entered into the system and that mistakes are not repeated because the system is not used. |
Closed – Implemented
A DOE process improvement team developed a DOE lessons-learned standard in May 1995 that all DOE organizational programs must comply with in establishing their individual lessons-learned programs.
|
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Topics
Atomic energy defense activitiesCost analysisCost controlEnvironmental monitoringHazardous substancesInternal controlsManagement information systemsNuclear waste managementNuclear weapons plant safetyPollution control