United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-08-08 monographic deposited born digital 50 p. GA 1.13:RCED-00-271 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-271 P0b002ee18038dfb3 f:rc00271 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-271 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-271 RCED-00-271 Financial management Contract oversight Cost overruns Schedule slippages Laboratories Test facilities Nuclear weapons testing Future budget projections DOE Inertial Confinement Fusion Program DOE Stockpile Stewardship Program Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Ignition Facility (NIF), focusing on the: (1) magnitude of NIF's cost and schedule overruns; (2) reasons for these cost and schedule problems; (3) effects of NIF's cost and schedule on other weapons and science programs; and (4) DOE's and Lawrence Livermore's actions to correct these problems.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) DOE and Lawrence Livermore now estimate that NIF will eventually cost about $3.3 billion and will be completed in 2008; (2) these new estimates mean NIF will cost over $1 billion more than originally planned and take 6 years longer to complete; (3) however, on the basis of analysis of figures from DOE and Lawrence Livermore, GAO estimates that NIF's cost is closer to $4 billion because DOE's estimate does not include all research and development costs from other program areas that are needed to support NIF; (4) furthermore, since significant research and development activities to support NIF remain to be completed and technical uncertainties persist, the cost of NIF could grow even higher and completion could take even longer; (5) NIF's cost increases and schedule delays were caused by a combination of poor Lawrence Livermore management and inadequate DOE oversight; (6) since NIF's beginning, the absence of effective independent reviews has enabled the project's costs and schedules to grow undetected by DOE program officials at headquarters and at Lawrence Livermore; (7) furthermore, none of these reviews has examined both the construction project and its supporting research and development activities; (8) paying for NIF's cost overruns has broad implications for DOE's nuclear weapons program; (9) the Secretary of Energy has said he wants to complete NIF but will not ask Congress for additional appropriations to pay for NIF's cost increases; (10) instead, he announced that the Department will pay for NIF's overruns by reallocating funds from within DOE's existing nuclear weapons budget; (11) however, DOE has not fully disclosed which programs will be cut to pay for NIF, nor when or how this will be done; (12) nor has DOE evaluated how this reallocation will affect components of the nuclear weapons program that might be eliminated, reduced in scope, or extended in order to fund NIF; (13) DOE tried but was unable to secure agreement among its three weapons laboratories that will use NIF--Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia; (14) consequently, DOE's June "interim" cost and schedule plan was not developed by taking into account the many potential impacts on DOE's nuclear weapons program; and (15) in addition, because DOE has not determined how it intends to pay for NIF's cost overruns, the potential impacts on other science programs are unknown. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-271/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-271.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-271/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-271.pdf GAO/RCED-00-271 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-271 Letter Report GAO/RCED-00-271; National Ignition Facility: Management and Oversight; Financial management Contract oversight Cost overruns Schedule slippages Laboratories Test facilities Nuclear weapons testing Future budget projections DOE Inertial Confinement Fusion Program DOE Stockpile Stewardship Program