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GAO Issues Report on U.S. Nuke Stockpile Assessments
The National Nuclear Security Administration should make several improvements to its program for verifying the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Friday (see GSN, Jan. 17). The “quantification of margins and uncertainties” (QMU) system designates factors crucial to a nuclear weapon’s ongoing viability. The methodology is used to assess how close each factor is to failure and the amount of certainty in each margin of error. Those calculations are used in determining how to use resources related to the nuclear stockpile and for certification of redesigned weapons planned under the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, the GAO report states. Auditors reported several weaknesses in the management of the QMU system. They said the National Nuclear Security Administration has failed to integrate research being conducted at the Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories on the methodology; has yet to produce a specific set of guidelines for the system’s development; has not formally required annual reviews of the program at the laboratories for certifying that milestones had been reached; and has not produced performance measures for assessing the laboratories’ QMU implementation efforts. The report contains five recommendations for the NNSA administrator: require the three laboratories to formally agree upon a technical description of the QMU system that addresses any methodological differences between the facilities; require occasional collaboration on the system between the laboratories; develop an integrated plan for QMU implementation; require annual reviews of scientific research at the laboratories that is designed to support the system; and revise performance evaluation plans for the laboratories to tie them more closely to the QMU effort (U.S. Government Accountability Office report, Feb. 3).
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