Effectiveness and Efficiency of Defense Environmental Cleanup Activities of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) was established by Congress in 1989 to remediate waste and environmental contamination that have resulted from nuclear weapons production and related activities. It has expended almost $200 billion on cleanup and related activities since its establishment and completed cleanup at all but 15 of the more than 100 sites. At the request of Congress, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine formed a committee to provide advice on enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of DOE-EM cleanup activities, particularly with respect to project management, contracting, and oversight practices. These recommendations were provided in two reports. The first report, Review of Effectiveness and Efficiency of Defense Environmental Cleanup Activities of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management: Report 1, considered overall project management practices, project management metrics and outcomes, and contract structures and performance measures. This second report focuses on specific DOE-EM sites to assess how effective the management of the numerous projects at the sites is contributing to the wider programmatic objectives of DOE-EM.