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Nuclear Waste: Further Actions Needed to Increase the Use of Innovative Cleanup Technologies

RCED-98-249 Published: Sep 25, 1998. Publicly Released: Oct 09, 1998.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Environmental Management's (EM) efforts to deploy innovative cleanup technologies, focusing on: (1) the extent to which innovative technologies developed by the Office of Science and Technology (OST) have been deployed at DOE sites and how this rate of deployment compares with the rates of other government organizations that develop environmental technologies; (2) what progress EM has made in overcoming obstacles to deploying innovative technologies at DOE cleanup sites; and (3) what EM is doing to increase the deployment of innovative technologies.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Energy To increase the deployment of existing technologies and ensure that technologies developed in the future are used, the Secretary of Energy should direct the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management to direct the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology to establish centers of expertise for innovative technology by using existing focus areas or another approach if needed and require that a representative from one of these centers participate in the technology selection process on each cleanup project.
Closed – Implemented
The Office of Science and Technology has established lead national laboratories to provide its focus areas with additional expertise. This action addresses the first part of the recommendation. However, the Office of Environmental Management has not required that innovative technology experts participate in technology selection processes on each cleanup project.
Department of Energy To increase the deployment of existing technologies and ensure that technologies developed in the future are used, the Secretary of Energy should direct the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management to direct the cleanup programs and OST to: (1) use existing data to identify OST-developed technologies that can be cost-effectively modified to meet sites' needs; and (2) identify funds to modify these technologies if needed.
Closed – Not Implemented
DOE has not addressed this recommendation. In their formal response to GAO's report and the May 1999 hearing, DOE officials cited an ongoing program that facilitates the deployment of some new technologies (46 projects over the past 2 years that the program has been in existence). DOE cleanup sites propose projects under this program. The program does not involve the Office of Science and Technology in proactively identifying potential uses for its technologies, as the recommendation suggests, and this office does not intend any further action.
Department of Energy To increase the deployment of existing technologies and ensure that technologies developed in the future are used, the Secretary of Energy should direct the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management to direct that the gates system be used rigorously and consistently as a decisionmaking tool for managing technology development projects and as a vehicle for increasing developer-user cooperation.
Closed – Implemented
The Office of Science and Technology issued new guidance for implementing the gates system on Feb. 10, 2000. Each technology focus area in the Office of Science and Technology was required to follow the new guidance in their project reviews beginning in the spring of 2000.
Department of Energy To increase the deployment of existing technologies and ensure that technologies developed in the future are used, the Secretary of Energy should direct the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management to use their annual performance expectations to hold EM headquarters managers responsible for increasing the deployment of innovative technology.
Closed – Not Implemented
Officials in the Office of Environmental Management told GAO that they do not intend to implement this recommendation because performance expectations for headquarters managers already tend to be lengthy and could not include details on every responsibility. Also, they believe that it is more important to include responsibilities for technology deployment in field managers' performance agreements, which was already being done.
Department of Energy To increase the deployment of existing technologies and ensure that technologies developed in the future are used, the Secretary of Energy should direct the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management to implement a system to verify the accuracy of future deployment data and label any existing data that have not been verified as an estimate.
Closed – Implemented
Deployment data for fiscal years 1997 and 1998 were verified, and the agency's deployment report dated February 1999 stated that data from earlier years were not verified. During 1998, DOE also issued a definition of deployment for use in gathering deployment data. DOE continued to verify deployment data for its fiscal year 1999 deployment report. These actions address the recommendation. In addition, the agency plans to study reasons for the poor quality of data input and develop corrective measures.

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Topics

Comparative analysisCost controlData integrityEnvironmental monitoringEnvironmental policiesEnvironmental researchNuclear waste disposalNuclear waste managementPollution controlTechnology transfer