A Department of Energy program to hire Soviet-era weapons scientists to control their work has grown beyond its original purpose, GAO has said.
It said DoE has overstated the number of scientists receiving its support and the number of long-term, private sector jobs created through the initiatives for proliferation prevention program, established in 1994.
The department claims to have engaged over 16,770 scientists in Russia and other countries, but that total includes both scientists with and without weapons-related experience, according to GAO-08-434T.
Officials from 10 Russian and Ukrainian weapons institutes told GAO the IPP program helps them attract, recruit, and retain younger scientists and contributes to the continued operation of their facilities, but GAO said that’s contrary to the original intent of the program, which was to keep older scientists from, for example, finding work with hostile governments.
DoE’s claim that the program helped create 2,790 long-term, private sector jobs for former weapons scientists is questionable because it is based on good faith reporting from U.S. industry partners and foreign institutes, GAO said.
It said the department has not developed criteria to determine when scientists, institutes, or countries should "graduate" from the program, and it has recently expanded the program to new areas, such as providing assistance to scientists in Iraq and Libya and, developing projects that support an international effort to expand the use of civilian nuclear power.
Although DoE agreed with the findings it said there is no need to reassess the program.
