The Albuquerque Journal reported today that the Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrotest Facility (DARHT), a $350 million nuclear weapons X-ray machine at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), vaporized a part of itself last week. According to lab spokesman Kevin Roark, "seventeen of the X-ray machine's 74 massive doughnut-shaped power cells will need to be taken apart and cleaned," causing a three-month delay in the project.
As the Journal pointed out, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) declared in May that the X-ray would be ready for its first full-scale nuclear weapons test this fall, following a $90 million reconstruction effort to repair the machine after it failed to work in 2003. Prior to the repair, the cost of the DAHRT program had already escalated from $30 million to $260 million due to repeated delays and a project redesign.
In addition to the issues raised in the Journal article, there is a major concern often voiced by LANL insiders and experts: the internal audit function at the Lab is failing to provide reasonable assurance to taxpayers that costs being incurred on projects like this are necessary and allowable. When there aren't enough project controls in place to gauge progress and identify problems early on, the cost associated with changing course or fixing problems becomes significantly higher.
The lack of a credible audit function is a serious problem given that LANL is embarking on major initiatives like plutonium pit production. Without better internal auditing, what's to stand in the way of tremendous cost overruns and endless delays such as those that have plagued DARHT?
-- Ingrid Drake
People are afraid at LANL. And yes, it's true that auditors especially are at risk if they report anything considered an embarassment to management. The only thing LANL management may fear is a Congressional hearing now and again, but just barely since rarely will anything substantive come of it. And people know this. They understand that LANL is isolated from the Beltway and the rest of the world and, as a result, largely an island unto itself. In reality there is little chance of anyone or anything holding LANL managers accountable for much of anything, least of all auditors reporting anything of significance. They'll just shoot the messenger and go back to business as usual. This is what it's like at LANL. This is what it's like on the inside. DARHT is just the latest cost overrun to come to surface. There are others. There will be more.
Posted by: LANL Insider | Aug 05, 2008 at 07:35 PM