Summary

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) efforts to restart three nuclear production reactors at the Savannah River site in South Carolina.

GAO found that: (1) the site contractor submitted a restart plan to DOE that detailed actions needed for restart; (2) the plan proposed to restart one reactor in September 1990, and the other two in December 1990 and March 1991, respectively; (3) as of March 1990, the contractor was revising the plan to assess the effects of tasks added to restart requirements; (4) DOE planned to announce a restart schedule in April 1990; (5) the contractor planned to make safety, operational, and management changes by fall 1990, which could cause additional restart delays; (6) potential delays ranged from 1.5 months to over 2 years; (7) DOE needed to improve employee attitudes toward safety at the site; (8) the contractor intended for the plan and associated activities to address safety issues; and (9) the contractor prepared a management policy statement describing implemented or planned culture changes, but the policy lacked a plan for measuring the success of those changes.