[CPEO-MEF] [Fwd: Waste Basket 3/23/01: "'BEEF'ing Up on the Taxpayer's Dime" ]

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

This report serves as a reminder that the Defense Department is not the
only federal agency that tests - and has a responsibility to clean up -
high explosives.

LS


> Subject: Waste Basket 3/23/01: “'BEEF'ing Up on the Taxpayer's Dime”
> Reply-To: staff@taxpayer.net
> 
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> The Waste Basket Vol. VI  No. 9 March 23rd, 2001
> A Weekly Bulletin on Wasteful Government Spending from Taxpayers for Common
> Sense
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> “BEEF”ing Up on the Taxpayer’s Dime
> 
> Taxpayers paid for about $500,000 in unnecessary expenses at the Department
> of Energy’s (DoE) Big Explosives Experimental Facility (BEEF), according to
> a March report by DoE’s Office of the Inspector General.
> 
> BEEF was established in 1997 as part of the stockpile stewardship program,
> which aims to maintain the safety, reliability and performance of the U.S.’s
> existing nuclear weapons.
> 
> The Nevada facility was designed and is operated to perform large-load, high
> explosive experiments that could not be performed at other DoE firing
> facilities due to local limits on how large explosives can be.
> 
> But “very few shots were performed at the facility, and even fewer actually
> had to be done there,” according to the report.
> 
> Since opening, 60 shots have been performed at the BEEF. No shots were
> conducted at the facility in 19 of the 38 months it was open and only three
> could not have been performed at other test sites cheaper.
> 
> The facility may get even less use in the future. Only DoE’s Livermore lab
> currently conducts tests at the facility. The trend is away from large-load
> explosives experiments of the type conducted at the facility, according to
> Livermore and Los Alamos lab personnel cited by the report.
> 
> The report found that the Nevada DoE office did not review use of the
> facility, believing that it was obligated to operate BEEF on a full-time
> basis. The office requested and has received funding for full-time
> operation, despite the facility’s limited use.
> 
> Nearly half of the facility’s $1.3 million budget could be saved if the BEEF
> operated only on an as-needed basis, according to the Inspector General.
> 
> The Nevada Operations office plans to act on the Inspector General’s
> recommendation to operate the facility on an as-needed basis and to
> periodically review use of the facility to find ways to reduce operations at
> the facility.
> 
> It is unclear whether labs will be required to provide justification to use
> BEEF for tests that could be performed at test sites closer to those
> laboratories.  The recommendation could yield even more savings for the
> taxpayer from a reduction in travel expenses associated with conducting
> tests at BEEF rather than at local labs.
> 
> Nonetheless, the Inspector General’s recommendations will save taxpayers at
> least half a million dollars a year. Taxpayers should be grateful for the
> office’s vigilance.
> 
> For more information, contact Christopher Burley at (202)-546-8500 ext. 114
> or chris@taxpayer.net.
> 
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> 
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-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org

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