§6284 Notification of Cost Overruns for Certain Department of Energy Projects

Summary

The Administrator and the Secretary must set a cost and schedule baseline before certain project milestones. For each nuclear stockpile life-extension or new nuclear weapon program, a baseline is required before entering Phase 6.4 or Phase 4, and it must match the cost and schedule in the project’s first Selected Acquisition Report. Each of those baselines must include an estimated cost for each warhead. The Administrator must send that baseline to the congressional defense committees within 30 days. The Administrator must also set baselines before Phase 6.4 for any major alteration project that costs more than $800,000,000, with a per-warhead cost estimate and a 30-day notice. The Secretary of Energy must set DOE project baselines under DOE rules for construction projects over $65,000,000 funded by DOE national security authorization and for defense environmental cleanup projects over $65,000,000, and must send those baselines to the congressional defense committees within 30 days. If a project’s total cost is expected to exceed 125 percent of its baseline, or if any warhead cost will exceed 150 percent of its per-warhead baseline, the Administrator or Secretary must notify the congressional defense committees within 30 days. Within 90 days after that notice, they must say whether the project will stop or continue. If it continues, they must certify a revised baseline and per-warhead estimates, have a review by the Director of Cost Estimating and Program Evaluation, confirm the project is necessary with no alternative, put a management structure in place to control cost and schedule, and send an assessment of the root causes of the cost growth (for example: unrealistic expectations, immature technology, changes in quantities, funding instability, poor performance, or other issues). The revised baseline must be sent with the certification and is treated the same way for future notifications.