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Nuclear Waste Cleanup: Better Data and Project Prioritization Vital to Managing Aging Infrastructure and Communicating Needs

May 10, 2026

What GAO Found The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) reported over $1.5 billion in repair needs across its about 4,300 operating facilities, as of June 2025. EM’s budget request included over $950 million in maintenance spending in fiscal year 2026, an 80 percent increase since fiscal year 2020. EM Direct-Funded Maintenance and Repair Spending, Fiscal Years (FY) 2020–2026 EM sites and headquarters use data from condition assessments of facilities to make maintenance decisions. EM validates these data for accuracy using scorecards. According to GAO’s analysis, some scorecards included inaccurate or unsupported data and did not have completed corrective action plans. Also, GAO’s review of site responses to a questionnaire found that some sites used different methods to generate data elements categorized as performance measures by a DOE order. As EM uses these data to make decisions for funding repairs, accurate and comparable data would help EM to better plan, prioritize, and fund the continued reduction of its maintenance needs. EM headquarters uses the Master Asset Plan—a document that outlines the infrastructure necessary to meet EM’s current mission requirements—to document its maintenance needs. Eight of 13 EM sites reported that this plan does not capture their maintenance…

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Source: US GAO Reports — US Government, Public Domain