April 1, 2002

Idaho Operations Office Planned Construction of a Waste Vitrification Facility

In 1995, the Office of Inspector General evaluated planned construction projects at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. In our resulting audit report, we questioned a number of the projects because they were not needed to support the Laboratory's mission, or because they were inappropriately sized. At the time, we found that the Department was not consistently verifying the need for projects, nor was it identifying and evaluating alternatives. As a result of the audit, the Department agreed to more aggressively manage construction by canceling unnecessary projects and thoroughly assessing alternatives at the Idaho site.