Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on three selected research and development initiatives using the plasma arc technology to treat waste, focusing on comparing the characteristics of the largest of the Department of Energy (DOE) initiatives and both Navy shore and ship initiatives.

GAO noted that: (1) the three initiatives use a similar source of heat to treat waste, but have different goals and equipment designs; and (2) although the initiatives' goals and designs for systems' inputs, furnaces, and outputs differed, the contractor responsible for the DOE and Navy shore initiatives incorporated technology from prior DOE research into the Navy shore initiative.