GAO deems nuclear modernization as priority for DOE in April report

The Government Accountability Office, in a report sent last month to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, highlighted six areas affecting the mission of DOE and its semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.

Nuclear weapons complex areas discussed were: improving contract, project and program management; as well as management of nuclear modernization challenges; addressing strategic human capital; and addressing insider and cybersecurity threats.

“NNSA [the National Nuclear Security Administration] is undergoing an ambitious, decades-long, and costly effort to modernize the nation’s nuclear security enterprise and the weapons in the U.S. stockpile,” the report said. “To provide NNSA with a more structured and defensible approach to managing the billions of dollars of work in its Weapons Activities portfolio, we recommended NNSA establish an enterprise-wide portfolio management framework for its weapons stockpile and infrastructure maintenance and modernization efforts.”

The report also included 30 open priority recommendations out of 257 total open recommendations, meaning recommendations that either have a deadline that has not been reached yet or have not been fully addressed by the DOE.

One of these recommendations included one made in 2020, wherein the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that NNSA develop a master schedule for plutonium pit production that meets standards for best practices. 

GAO said in the report that in January 2023, the master schedule did not meet the mark. NNSA said in January 2025 that it would have a better master schedule drafted by March 31, 2025. The report, published April 11, did not say whether NNSA completed this schedule.

Another recommendation included one made in July 2024, wherein GAO recommended that NNSA manage its production modernization programs through GAO best practices for schedule development. NNSA said in January 2025 that it would have all of its master schedules for modernization programs finished by Sept. 30, 2025.

A response by Wright was not published in the report.