Allison Bawden

Now also posting on Blue Sky. Follow @nukeoversight.bsky.social

Among NNSA’s major projects without performance baselines, 8 were undergoing changes to project designs or experiencing design challenges. NNSA has met milestones for maturing relevant critical technologies for four of the projects.

These overruns were often associated with inadequate project management by contractors; poor vendor or subcontractor performance; or increased equipment, materials, or vendor costs.

Within NNSA’s portfolio of major projects ($100M+) with approved performance baselines, cumulative cost overruns have increased to $4.8 billion and schedule overruns to 30 years from what we reported in 2023 ($2.1 billion and 9 years). gao.gov/products/gao-2…

NNSA said it plans to implement new processes, including the use of templates and root cause guidance, to help project managers better meet reporting requirements. We recommend they complete the guidance and implement the process.

NNSA saw costs grow >25% on 7 out of 14 construction projects, but didn’t notify Congress about 5 of them for months, let alone within the 30 days required by law. Nor did NNSA assess the root causes of cost overruns for those 5 within 90 days or inform Congress, as required.

NNSA spends a lot of money on nuclear weapons & infrastructure. NNSA has requirements (similar to those of the Nunn-McCurdy Act) to formally notify Congress about cost overruns and assess the reasons for the overruns, but it hasn’t consistently done so. gao.gov/products/gao-2…

Los Alamos looks forward to additional park-and-ride shuttle routes to the lab. NNSA has some concerns about potential challenges with having sufficient federal staff to oversee the program and assess whether it’s providing the intended benefits.

Under a new authority in the FY25 NDAA, NNSA sites can reimburse some contractor commuting costs. This could improve safety and congestion. To date, Los Alamos is the only site to have made a proposal; they estimated it would cost $74 million to implement from FY25–30.

Commuting can be a slog. One way NNSA can address recruitment & retention challenges at its labs is by making it easier to get to work, including by offering park-and-ride shuttles and public transit subsidies. gao.gov/products/gao-2…

Until the UPF is ready, NNSA will have to keep using an 80-year old facility that could cost up to a half billion dollars to maintain in the meantime. We recommended that NNSA develop a comprehensive plan for this maintenance.

The UPF is also delayed. The agency is monitoring the project, but there are already doubts that the contractor will meet its project milestone for 2029. There are concerns about the ability to track project progress because of the way the contractor categorizes project tasks.

In 2004 NNSA began planning the Uranium Processing Facility to replace Manhattan Project-era facilities at Y-12 in TN. Fast forward 21 years: UPF’s est. cost is up to nearly $10 billion and it’ll cost NNSA to keep using old facilities until UPF is complete gao.gov/products/gao-F…

This morning @nytimes reported on radiological risks in Ukraine. we have a recent report on the range of nuclear security and safety risks related to the war in Ukraine. gao.gov/products/gao-2…

As NNSA’s contractors underestimate the costs of the contracts across the enterprise, higher costs for small projects add up. We recommend NNSA ensure its contractors estimate costs more reliably to enable more realistic program planning & budgeting and better project management.

Over the next 2 decades, the United States plans to spend tens of billions of dollars to modernize its nuclear weapons stockpile. These expenditures will include hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fixed-price construction subcontracts.

You wouldn’t think the cost of a fixed-price construction contract could increase—but hundreds of NNSA’s run over, to the tune of $37.5 million just in FY23. NNSA’s construction budget is always tight so unexpected increases mean delays for other projects. gao.gov/products/gao-2…

NNSA’s plans for upgrading one of the facilities are no longer current and the agency hasn't evaluated its progress on repairing any of the three. We recommend that NNSA develop performance measures to track and report on its progress, and document options for future upgrades.

In 2023 NNSA submitted to Congress a plan for repairing & upgrading these facilities. But the plan doesn’t give Congress—or other decision-makers, like NNSA management—all the information they need to determine whether the fusion facilities can continue to perform as designed.

Fusion is essential for powering the USS Enterprise—and, here on earth, for maintaining and modernizing the U.S. nuclear stockpile without explosive nuclear testing. NNSA operates 3 fusion facilities for these purposes. gao.gov/products/gao-2…