LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – At Los Alamos National Laboratory, a seven-year, $213 million upgrade to the security system that protects the lab's most sensitive nuclear bomb-making facilities doesn't work.
In Tennessee, the price tag for a new uranium processing facility has grown nearly sevenfold in eight years to upward of $6 billion because of problems that include a redesign to raise the roof so equipment can fit inside.
Virtually every major project under the National Nuclear Security Administration's oversight is behind schedule and over budget — the result, watchdogs and government auditors say, of years of lax accountability and nearly automatic budget increases for nuclear contractors.
It's a problem that's far from new but is drawing renewed scrutiny as a panel appointed by Congress recently has begun reviewing whether the NNSA should be overhauled.
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