Summary

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) and five other agencies' practices for identifying and preventing the supply of nonconforming products, including counterfeit and substandard parts.

GAO found that: (1) the supply of nonconforming products was a governmentwide problem, since all six agencies contacted found them in various components and systems; (2) although NRC took some actions to detect and minimize the incidence of nonconforming parts in commercial nuclear power plants, it deferred its regulatory responsibility by rescinding penalties and postponing inspections; (3) although individual agencies had programs to detect nonconforming parts, there was no governmentwide effort to address the issue; and (4) there was no centralized source of consolidated information on nonconforming products to increase information exchange and joint investigations among agencies.