Audit Report: DOE-OIG-18-04

October 27, 2017

Management of the National Ignition Facility and the Advanced Radiographic Capability

The Department of Energy’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore), is the world’s only operational megajoule-class laser facility.  NIF is composed of 192 precision-aligned laser beamlines, a 10-meter-diameter target chamber with associated experimental and diagnostic equipment, and other supporting infrastructure.  Livermore manages NIF as a facility which supports a large range of missions including the Stockpile Stewardship Program and the Department’s fundamental science and energy missions.  The National Ignition Campaign (NIC) was established to achieve fusion ignition and support non-ignition stockpile stewardship experiments on NIF, and transition NIF to routine facility operations.  The NIC ended in fiscal year (FY) 2012 and did not achieve fusion ignition.  In FY 2015, NIF received approximately $275 million in Department funding for operations and related activities.

Based on the results of the 2015 Review of the Inertial Confinement Fusion and High Energy Density Science Portfolio, performed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), achieving NIF’s mission of fusion ignition in the near term (1 or 2 years) is unlikely and is uncertain over the next 5 years.  NNSA’s review found that while ignition remains a significant technical challenge, its pursuit and achievement remains important to the Stockpile Stewardship Program into the foreseeable future.  Further, NNSA stated in its review that costs will continue to be incurred over the next 5 years in support of diagnostics and facility improvements.  Due to NIF’s significance in support of various missions, we initiated this audit to determine if Livermore is effectively managing NIF.

Nothing came to our attention to indicate that Livermore has not effectively managed NIF.  However, we identified an opportunity to improve Livermore’s management and NNSA’s oversight of capital asset projects such as the Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC), a key NIF diagnostic tool.  Specifically, we found that NIF users reported accomplishing nearly all NNSA Level 2 program milestones from FYs 2013 through 2015.  NIF users were generally satisfied with how Livermore had overseen the scheduling and execution of experiments at NIF.  In addition, Livermore reported that it significantly improved its target shot  rate, achieving a total of 417 shots in FY 2016, which was the most ever achieved in a single year at NIF.  We also noted that in December 2015, Livermore performed its first programmatic experiments using ARC, one of NIF’s key diagnostic tools.  In FY 2016, ARC produced its first radiographs of NIF targets which demonstrate progress towards the quality imagery of the more complex NIF experiments that ARC is designed to produce.  While ARC is expected to continue making progress that is relevant to understanding the operation of modern nuclear weapons, we noted that NNSA did not require Livermore to apply Department Order 413.3B, Program and Project Management for the Acquisition of Capital Assets in ARC’s development and installation efforts, and therefore did not receive complete transparency.  Ultimately, ARC was commissioned nearly 5 years later than the original schedule, over its total planned cost and only providing 50 percent of its original planned capability.  Although NNSA was aware and approved ARC milestone delays, the lack of transparency and risk analysis for ARC obscured NNSA’s full awareness of the specific time and resources Livermore provided to ARC.

The challenges Livermore experienced with ARC, in turn, impacted scientific advancements in support of the Stockpile Stewardship Program.  Without project management controls in place, efforts to develop new diagnostics may be at risk of not being delivered within schedule, cost, and scope.  To address the issues we identified, we made recommendations to the Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.  Management concurred with the report’s recommendations.

Topic: Management & Administration