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Open Recommendations (118 total)

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: Construction Challenges Highlight the Need for DOE to Address Root Causes

GAO-22-105057
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Energy The Secretary of Energy should ensure that the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management update the risk register for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to include specific regulatory, construction, and other risks, together with adequate mitigation strategies. (Recommendation 4)
Open
DOE updated the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Risk Register in December 2023. We are currently evaluating these updates to ensure regulatory, construction, and other risks are included, along with appropriate mitigation strategies.

Scientific Integrity Policies: Additional Actions Could Strengthen Integrity of Federal Research

GAO-19-265
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Energy The Secretary of Energy should take action to educate and communicate the agency's scientific integrity polices to staff through, for example, regular training. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed
In January 2024, DOE issued a revised scientific integrity policy. The policy states that DOE will educate all covered personnel on their rights and responsibilities related to scientific integrity. Specifically, DOE will provide covered personnel with scientific integrity information or mandatory training. The policy also states that DOE will also determine the content and timing of follow-on scientific integrity training, which will be ongoing and occur with regularity. We will continue to monitor and update status of this recommendation.

Critical Infrastructure: Actions Needed to Better Secure Internet-Connected Devices

GAO-23-105327
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Energy The Secretary of Energy, as SRMA for the energy sector, should direct the Director of the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response to use the National Plan to develop a sector-specific plan that includes metrics for measuring the effectiveness of their efforts to enhance the cybersecurity of their sector's IoT and OT environments. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In April 2023, Energy noted that it is working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on updating the National Infrastructure Plan. It added that once the National Plan was updated, the agency would work toward updating its sector-specific plan. The agency stated that the sector-specific plan is estimated to be completed one year after the updated National Plan is published. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the National Plan is estimated to be completed by September 2025.

Department of Energy: Use of Leading Practices Could Help Manage the Risk of Fraud and Other Improper Payments

GAO-17-235
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Energy To help ensure that necessary data are available to employ data analytics as a tool to perform contractor cost-surveillance activities, the Secretary of Energy should require contractors to maintain sufficiently detailed transaction-level cost data that are reconcilable with amounts charged to the government, including (1) cost data that, at a minimum, represent a full data population and (2) the details necessary to determine the nature of each cost transaction, with such identifiers as transaction date, dollar amount, item or service description, and transaction codes to indicate the type of cost represented (e.g., construction materials, property lease, and office supplies).
Open
In its comments on the draft report in March 2017, DOE did not agree to implement this recommendation because officials believe that the recommendation establishes agency-specific requirements for DOE contractors that are more prescriptive than current federal requirements. In our January 2021 report on DOE contractor fraud risk (GAO-21-44), we found that DOE plans to survey organizations about their current use of data analytics and plans widespread use of data analytics beginning in fiscal year 2022. As of October 2023, DOE is continuing to develop and implement its data analytics strategy.

Nuclear Waste Cleanup: DOE Needs to Address Weaknesses in Program and Contractor Management at Los Alamos

GAO-23-105665
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Energy The Secretary of Energy should direct the EM-LA Field Office Manager to formalize and document the decision rules it uses and the analyses it conducts to prioritize cleanup actions, as it waits for EM to issue guidance on how to incorporate risk-informed decision-making when applying EM's prioritization schema. (Recommendation 4)
Open
As of November 2023, we are following up with the agency and will update the response to this recommendation in the future.

Hanford Cleanup: DOE's Efforts to Close Tank Farms Would Benefit from Clearer Legal Authorities and Communication

GAO-21-73
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Energy
Priority Rec.
The Secretary of Energy should direct the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Environmental Management to obtain the assistance of an independent, third-party mediator to help reach agreement with the State of Washington's Department of Ecology on a process for assessing the contaminated soil and what role NRC should play in this process. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In a December 2020 letter signed by the Senior Advisor for Environmental Management that provided agency comments on our draft report, DOE stated that it has engaged in mediated negotiations with EPA and Ecology since June 2020 and that these current actions satisfy our recommendation. As of April 2024, parties are still engaged in these negotiations. DOE also told us that the ongoing negotiations are also intended to enhance the integration of the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) into remediation of soil surrounding the tanks in the Hanford tank farms, and that, in the event that on-going negotiations are not successful at resolving issues, DOE is open to future mediated negotiations with EPA and Ecology. However, we believe that DOE has not yet satisfied this recommendation. DOE must still resolve the significant disagreement with Ecology regarding how to address contamination in the soil under the Tri-Party Agreement, including what role NRC should play, regardless of the process DOE must follow under CERCLA.

Nuclear Materials: DOE Plans for Savannah River Site's H-Canyon Facility

GAO-24-106494
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Energy The Secretary of Energy should ensure that the Senior Advisor of EM and the Administrator of NNSA enter into a written agreement for the planned use of H-Canyon to process any future shipments of foreign research reactor fuel not already included in an MOA or written agreement. (Recommendation 2)
Open
DOE agreed with this recommendation. In its November 2023 response letter, DOE stated that EM and NNSA will develop a written agreement describing the collaborative process the two programs will use to plan shipments and receipts of foreign research reactor fuel not already included in an MOA or written agreement. DOE estimated completing this action by December 2024.

Nuclear Waste: DOE Needs Greater Leadership Stability and Commitment to Accomplish Cleanup Mission

GAO-22-104805
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Energy The Secretary of Energy should ensure that the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Environmental Management develops a communication strategy for developing, implementing, and monitoring reforms that includes continuous, two-way communication mechanisms. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In providing comments on this report, DOE concurred with this recommendation. In July 2023, DOE officials told us that the Office of Environmental Management (EM) is taking actions to address this recommendation, such as expanding its internal communications portal to include all field sites. By developing a communication strategy that includes continuous, two-way communication mechanisms, EM could help maintain the effectiveness of its workforce when implementing future reforms. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation as EM takes such actions.

Scientific Integrity Policies: Additional Actions Could Strengthen Integrity of Federal Research

GAO-19-265
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Energy The Secretary of Energy should establish steps and a time frame for designating a scientific integrity official to oversee the department's scientific integrity activities. (Recommendation 3)
Open – Partially Addressed
In January 2024, DOE issued a revised scientific integrity policy. The policy states that the Secretary of Energy will designate one or more senior career employees as the agency's Scientific Integrity Official(s) for matters related to scientific integrity and to oversee implementation and iterative improvement of scientific integrity policies and processes across DOE. The Secretary of Energy will also designate a Chief Science Officer for DOE. The Scientific Integrity Official(s) will report to the Chief Science Officer , who will serve as principal advisor to the Secretary of Energy on scientific issues. We will continue to monitor and update status of this recommendation.

Critical Infrastructure: Actions Needed to Better Secure Internet-Connected Devices

GAO-23-105327
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Energy The Secretary of Energy, as SRMA for the energy sector, should direct the Director of the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response to include IoT and OT devices as part of the risk assessments of their sector's cyber environment. (Recommendation 2)
Open
In April 2023, Energy stated that its risk analysis work would include OT and IoT devices and systems used in the energy sector and estimated the completion date of December 1, 2023.
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