Calendar Year 2020

The Office of Inspector General (OIG), U.S. Department of Energy, conducted an inspection to
review the management of accountable Government-owned personal property at the
Department’s Ashtabula Environmental Management Project (Ashtabula) in Ashtabula, Ohio.
Earthline Technologies (Earthline), formerly RMI Environmental Services, is the Department’s
environmental restoration contractor at Ashtabula. Earthline is a division of RMI Titanium
Company headquartered in Niles, Ohio.
The objective of this inspection was to determine if Ashtabula was properly managing
Government-owned personal property in accordance with Departmental and other Federal
property management requirements.ration"}

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore) has a personal property inventory of over
53,500 line items with an acquisition value of over $823 million. It generates thousands of
excess personal property items each year. In FY 2000, for example, Livermore excessed over
12,000 items of personal property with an acquisition value of over $59 million. These items
were disposed of through reutilization, donations, and public sales. Our inspection evaluated the
economy and efficiency of Livermore’s management of excess personal property.

I am pleased to submit the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) Semiannual report to
Congress. The report summarizes significant OIG activities and accomplishments during
the 6-month period ending September 30, 2001. The Inspector General Act, as amended,
requires you to forward the report to the appropriate congressional oversight committees
within 30 days of your receipt of this report.
This report reflects our continuing commitment to focus OIG efforts on the issues and
concerns most critical to the Administration, the Department, and the Congress. In
particular, it describes OIG accomplishments in identifying the most significant
management challenges facing the Department."}a//130936

Beginning in the 1950s, the Department of Energy (Department) and its predecessor
agencies provided certain nuclear materials -- including plutonium and uranium -- to other
government agencies, academic institutions, and commercial facilities. These materials,
provided via loan or lease under authority granted by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, were
to be used for research, medical purposes, or projects consistent with the Department's
mission. As of September 30, 2000, the Department had nuclear materials at over 300 non-
Department domestic facilities.
The Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) share responsibility for
nuclear materials provided to licensees, including accounting for the material and tracking
its location. The Nuclear Materials Management and Safeguards System (NMMSS) is an
electronic database used by these organizations to assist them in carrying out their
respective responsibilities. During our audit of the Department's Fiscal Year 2000 Financial
Statements, the Office of Inspector General identified apparent inaccuracies in NMMSS.
Moreover, problems with the validity of NMMSS records associated with materials held by
domestic licensees were highlighted in prior internal reports. Based on these concerns, we
initiated this audit to determine whether the Department can account for nuclear materials
provided to domestic licensees.rat

The Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) were established to
transmit and sell electrical power generated by federally owned
hydroelectric projects. To accomplish these tasks, three PMAs -
Bonneville Power Administration (Bonneville), Western Area Power
Administration (Western), and Southwestern Power Administration
(Southwestern) - own and operate transmission lines that cross 22
states. Additionally, the PMAs maintain communication systems to
ensure the reliability of their transmission systems. These
communication systems perform vital functions such as protective
relaying, system monitoring, and scheduling of electricity transmission
over the transmission lines. The communication systems are also used
for administrative purposes, such as training and timekeeping by the
PMAsd