Audit Report: IG-0634

The Department has not clearly defined the termination point of the
Cold Standby Program. Initially, the Department's Office of Nuclear
Energy, Science and Technology (Nuclear Energy) coordinated the end
of Cold Standby with the deployment of a government-funded gas
centrifuge facility. The plans called for the Cold Standby mission to
end in September 2005 with centrifuge production reaching adequate
levels by September 2008. Under those assumptions, there would be a
minimum one-year gap in backup domestic enrichment capability,
representing the time between the latest possible resumption of gaseous
diffusion operations and the planned full operation of the governmentfunded
gas centrifuge facility. However, the government-funded
centrifuge program was never implemented, and in 2002, the
Department negotiated with the United States Enrichment Corporation
(USEC) to deploy a commercial gas centrifuge facility. Under USEC's
plan, comparable enrichment production will begin in September 2011,
increasing the amount of time between the possibility of restarting the
Portsmouth facility and the deployment of a new commercial centrifuge
to a minimum of three years.