U S Government Accountability Office

Modernizing the nuclear security enterprise U S Government Accountability Office

" NNSA has primary responsibility for ensuring the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. NNSA carries out these activities at three national labs, four production sites, and one test site-collectively known as the nuclear security enterprise. Contractors operate these sites under management and operations (M& O) contracts. The enterprise workforces often possess certain critical skills that can only be developed through a minimum of 3 years of experience working in a secure, classified environment. Because NNSA could have difficulty maintaining the critically skilled workforces necessary to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons, GAO was asked to examine: (1) strategies NNSA and its M& O contractors use to recruit, develop, and retain critically skilled workforces; (2) how NNSA assesses the effectiveness of these strategies; and (3) challenges in recruiting, retaining, and developing this specialized workforce and efforts to mitigate these challenges. GAO reviewed NNSA's and its M& O contractors' human capital documents and interviewed officials. "