GAO says DOE lacks clear standards for nuclear cleanup contractors
The Department of Energy lacks a clear definition of what makes a contractor assurance system effective, making it harder to judge whether companies overseeing nuclear cleanup are identifying and correcting serious problems, the Government Accountability Office said in a report published and publicly released August 26, 2026.
The findings concern DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which manages cleanup at 15 contaminated sites across the United States. The work includes radioactive-waste disposal, environmental remediation and activities tied to worker safety. DOE depends heavily on contractors for that mission: about 95 percent of EM’s annual $8 billion budget goes to contracting, supporting a contractor workforce of more than 25,000 employees.
GAO reviewed three contracts and associated field offices at Hanford, Idaho and Los Alamos. The sample was selected for factors including contract value and purpose and was not designed to represent every DOE contractor. The report therefore does not conclude that all contractors have ineffective assurance systems.
What GAO found
DOE requires certain contractors to maintain assurance systems intended to monitor performance, identify and report problems, complete corrective actions and provide the department with information for risk-informed oversight. But GAO found that neither DOE nor EM has defined system effectiveness or established specific, measurable criteria for field offices to use when evaluating it.
That left the selected field offices using different approaches. The Hanford and Idaho offices determined their systems were effective despite the lack of department-wide definitions and criteria. The Los Alamos office did not make an effectiveness determination.
At Hanford, the contractor’s review of issues between January 2022 and October 2023 found that nearly 40 percent of sampled issues in the two highest significance categories were improperly closed or insufficiently documented, according to GAO. The field office also reported poor work planning and conduct of operations that required formal requests for corrective-action plans.
At Idaho, the contractor reported 15 radiological events over an eight-month period that put personnel at risk of radiological overexposure, the report said. GAO did not state that workers were overexposed.
At Los Alamos, GAO described a widespread breakdown in the contractor’s training and qualification program in 2023 that led to a stop-work order. The interruption delayed nuclear-waste disposal and environmental-remediation work for 90 days. That is a historical example included in the August 26 report, not a new event.
Why the oversight gap matters
EM’s cleanup mission is expected to continue for decades. In April 2026, the office estimated that remaining work could last until 2100 and cost between $641 billion and $840 billion.
Those estimates make contractor oversight more than an administrative issue. Clear measures can help DOE compare performance, identify recurring weaknesses and determine when contract terms or other consequences should apply. Without shared definitions and metrics, GAO said, DOE and its field offices have less assurance that contractor-reported information supports consistent, risk-informed decisions.
The report does not say radioactive contamination escaped or that the public was harmed. Its concern is the quality of the systems used to detect, document and correct problems before they become more serious. The report also does not establish that workers were overexposed; it says the Idaho events put personnel at risk of radiological overexposure.
What happens next
GAO made four recommendations to EM. They call for defining contractor assurance-system effectiveness, establishing measurable evaluation criteria, explaining how EM will use field-office information in risk-informed oversight, creating oversight-assessment schedules and using contract mechanisms to communicate performance expectations and consequences.
DOE concurred with the recommendations, but all four remain open. GAO said it will update their status after confirming agency action. The report therefore does not represent a shutdown, funding cancellation or completed reform.
Readers should watch for whether DOE publishes a formal definition of an effective contractor assurance system and measurable evaluation criteria. Future changes to contract language, contractor performance evaluations and DOE oversight schedules will show whether the department’s response changes how long-term cleanup work is monitored.
Sources
- GAO report on DOE contractor assurance systems
- DOE Office of Environmental Management
- Daily Federal report on the GAO findings
Look for updates to this story
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