The Government Accountability Office (GAO), in a report published Sep. 5, gave two recommendations for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to meet its goal to upgrade and repair its fusion facilities.
The goal, the report said, is to meet a 10-year plan NNSA submitted to Congress in January 2023, requesting $492 million over six to eight years to recapitalize its three Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) facilities: the National Ignition Facility, the Z Pulsed Power Facility and the Omega Laser Facility.
However, GAO said in its report that NNSA did not document progress toward this recapitalization goal.
“GAO found the ICF program has not developed and used performance measures, such as scope, cost, and time frame baselines, to evaluate progress of the near-term sustainment activities,” the report said. “NNSA has generally managed the facilities’ sustainment as an annual activity rather than as a multi-year surge of work.”
Not only was progress not monitored, but the planned approach for the Z Pulsed Power Facility is no longer current as NNSA is “exploring an additional upgrade option, GAO said.
The report added, “Without developing and using such measures, NNSA management and decision-makers have incomplete information on whether NNSA is achieving its recapitalization objective to ensure the ICF facilities continue to operate at their originally designed performance levels.”
GAO recommended the NNSA administrator should ensure the fusion program documents all options under consideration for upgrading the Z facility, as well as ensure the program develops and uses performance measures to evaluate progress at all three facilities.
Acting NNSA administrator Teresa Robbins concurred to both these recommendations. Actions toward the Z facility recommendation are estimated to be complete March 31, 2027, while actions toward the second recommendation are estimated to be complete Dec. 31, 2026.
