Audit Report: IG-0525

The Fiscal Year (FY) 1994 National Defense Authorization Act authorized the establishment of
Hazardous Materials Management and Emergency Response (HAMMER) Training and
Education Centers at Department of Energy sites to provide training for handling hazardous
materials. The legislation envisioned HAMMER training centers as user facilities for the
Department, other federal agencies, and regional response personnel. The only center built to
date is located at the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington. This center, opened in September
1997, has an average annual operating budget of $5.5 million.
Fluor Hanford, Inc. (Fluor), which operates HAMMER under a contract with the Department's
Richland Operations Office (Richland), maintains a small, in-house staff that is responsible for
day-to-day operations of the center. Industry experts and other external sources provide the
actual training. Since it was anticipated that Hanford employees would use only 50 percent of
the training center's capacity, Fluor established a marketing department to attract non-Hanford
customers. Through this mechanism, the Department and Fluor hoped to generate enough
revenue to make the training center self-sustaining. The objective of the audit was to determine
whether the marketing program for HAMMER has been effective.