Page 1 GAO-25-107767 NNSA
Over the next 2 decades, the United States plans to spend tens of billions of
dollars to modernize its nuclear weapons stockpile and the research and
production infrastructure on which its stockpile programs depend. The National
Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)—a separately organized agency within
the Department of Energy (DOE)—is responsible for managing these efforts. The
weapons and the infrastructure used to produce them are aging, with some
facilities having been in operation since the 1940s and some weapons in the
active nuclear stockpile having been initially fielded in the 1970s.
Since 2011, NNSA has been required by law to report on cost growth for certain
construction projects and nuclear weapons acquisition programs. NNSA must
notify the congressional defense committees when these projects and programs
have set cost baselines and when costs will exceed certain thresholds relative to
these baselines. This provision is similar to the Nunn-McCurdy Act, which
requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to report on certain cost growth for
major defense acquisition programs.
House Report 118-529 includes a provision for us to review NNSA’s cost growth
notification processes. Our report assesses NNSA’s implementation of this
provision and opportunities NNSA has identified to improve its cost growth
notification requirements.
• NNSA has not implemented effective processes to manage cost growth
notifications, and this has led to inconsistent communication with
congressional committees about growth in defense-funded construction
projects. We identified 14 baselined construction projects that fall within the
provision’s criteria. Of these, seven have exceeded or are likely to exceed the
threshold for a cost growth notification. However, NNSA has notified the
committees that two of these projects will exceed cost baselines.
• NNSA has three weapons acquisition programs that meet the reporting
criteria. None of these have experienced reportable cost growth since 2016.
In 2016, one weapons alteration program—the W88 Alteration 370—reported
cost growth because of a change in program scope. However, the law in
force at the time did not require a congressional notification.
• NNSA officials responsible for the cost growth reporting said work is under
way to implement a process, including the use of templates, for congressional
notifications for cost growth in construction projects. Additional templates and
a process for reporting cost growth for weapons programs are in the early
stages. NNSA officials, however, could not provide a timeline for completion.
U.S. Government Accountability Office
National Nuclear Security Administration:
Agency Should Improve Cost Growth
Notification Process
-25-107767
Report to the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives
