Nuclear Nonproliferation: Progress Made in Improving Security at Russian Nuclear Sites, but the Long-term Sustainability of U.S.-Funded Security Upgrades Is Uncertain

In February 2007, GAO reported on DOE and DOD's efforts to secure weapons-usable nuclear material and warheads in Russia and in other countries (GAO-07-404). In that report, we concluded that DOE's current metric for reporting progress on the number of buildings secured by its MPC&A program provides the Congress with a potentially misleading assessment of the security at these facilities. Specifically, DOE should not report to the Congress that buildings with weapons-usable nuclear material in Russia and other countries are "secure" until all DOE risk reduction goals have been achieved, and all planned upgrades at those buildings are completed. Currently, DOE considers buildings to be "secured" after only limited MPC&A upgrades (rapid upgrades) are installed, even when additional comprehensive upgrades are planned. Rapid upgrades do not include the majority of measures DOE uses to address the threat of insider theft at Russian nuclear sites, which DOE considers to be one of its most pressing concerns. DOE provides most upgrades designed to address the insider threat during the comprehensive upgrades phase. Further, DOE officials told us that comprehensive upgrades are necessary to achieve all risk reduction goals at buildings with nuclear material, calling into question DOE's decision to report buildings without such upgrades completed as "secure." As a result, we recommended that the Secretary of Energy, working with the Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), revise the metrics used to measure progress in the Materials Protection, Control, and Accounting Program (MPC&A) program to better reflect the level of completion of security upgrades at buildings reported as "secure." On May 21, 2007, NNSA wrote that it has changed its metrics to more clearly reflect the level of security obtained after the completion of rapid and comprehensive upgrades. This was codified in the approved accomplishment report GAO-07-1267A.

In February 2007, GAO reported on DOE and DOD's efforts to secure weapons-usable nuclear material and warheads in Russia and in other countries (GAO-07-404). In that report we noted that as DOE nears the completion of its security upgrade work in its Materials Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) program, the sustainability of U.S.-funded nuclear security upgrades in Russia and other countries has become increasingly important for ensuring that the substantial investment of U.S. funds over the past 15 years is not wasted. DOE and the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation have developed a joint sustainability plan for the majority of sites where DOE has installed MPC&A upgrades. We believed this to be a critical step in gaining agreement on what remains to be done before DOE transfers full responsibility for sustainability of MPC&A upgrades to Russia in 2013. While DOE uses its Metrics Information Management System (MIMS) to track some measures of progress in its sustainability efforts, DOE officials acknowledged that the current MIMS data do not provide an accurate picture of the department's progress toward its goal of preparing Russia to take full responsibility for funding the maintenance and sustainability of U.S.-funded upgrades by 2013. Creating a new management information system for sustainability or expanding MIMS to include tracking for all sustainability elements could give DOE managers an improved tool for monitoring the MPC&A program's progress on sustainability and would aid the department in providing the Congress with a more accurate assessment of the progress made toward DOE's goal of providing Russia with a sustainable MPC&A system by 2013. As a result, we recommended that DOE develop a sustainability management system or modify the Metrics Information Management System to more clearly track DOE's progress in developing a sustainable MPC&A system across all sites where it has installed MPC&A upgrades, including evaluations of progress for each of the seven key elements of sustainability outlined in DOE's Sustainability Guidelines. In May 2007, DOE notified GAO that it has developed and recently updated its programmatic guidelines for sustainability that provide standardized criteria for sustaining MPC&A upgrades, and a list of sustainability indicators that the department currently uses to track progress at 15 sites. DOE will extend the use of these metrics to all sites as they complete the MPC&A upgrades and incorporate the reporting into a sustainability management system as GAO recommended. This action was codified in accomplishment report GAO-07-1286A.