The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has no clear vision for its security program going forward, potentially jeopardizing the sustainability of nuclear site security measures, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and other committee leaders requested a GAO investigation of the NNSA security measures in May 2010. At the time, legislators voiced concern that a number of proposed security reforms would jeopardize the safety and security of nuclear sites.
In 2012, NNSA suffered a security breach when protestors made it past a security gate undetected at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee.
Upton and House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) said on Monday the security breaches were “reviewed extensively” by the committee.
“At those hearings we urged DoE to establish and develop an effective security structure and culture that can be sustained over the long term,” Upton and Murphy said. “GAO found that while there has been some progress since the Y-12 breach, the department’s lack of a clear path forward puts recent security reforms at risk. We will continue our oversight of DoE and NNSA’s security reforms, including GAO’s recommendations, to make sure any security improvements can be sustained.”
The GAO recommended that the DoE direct the NNSA administrator to establish and implement a “security road map.”
“Since the Y-12 breach, NNSA has initiated actions to improve its security performance and oversight, partly in response to recommendations of its own Security Task Force, but it did not carry out the task force’s priority recommendation that NNSA develop a security road map,” the GAO report said. “Without developing a clear vision and path forward for its security program, NNSA risks putting in place another short-lived or ineffective response to its security problems.”