The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative program has done a good job of managing dozens of contracts under its control, including on a major project in Kazakhstan, the Department of Energy’s Inspector General said late last week. Avoiding the concerns of small businesses about the amount of work given out under a 2007 ID/IQ contract, the IG said that the program at least has appropriate controls in place to manage the $272 million in foreign and small business contracts it has doled out. The IG said that GTRI officials ensured work was performed to requirements by verifying contract deliverables, employing multiple monitoring techniques and reviewing contract costs.
The IG specifically credited the program for its management of a foreign contract with the Kazakhstan Nuclear Enterprise Corporation to establish safe storage for spent fuel from the BN-350 reactor in Aktau. When it entered into the contract with KATEP, the scope and cost of the work was unknown, but the IG said that the program’s diligent oversight of the contract helped control the price tag of the project, which it said cost $131 million. “These actions, if consistently utilized, should help NNSA achieve its GTRI goals,” the IG said.