Dec 10, 2009 8:38 pm US/Pacific
Lawrence Livermore Lab Reportedly Hiding Costs
LIVERMORE (CBS 5 / AP) ―
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Lawrence Livermore Lab.
CBS
A leaked federal report raises concerns about accounting practices at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, saying they allow a new facility built to study nuclear fusion to shirk $80 million in payments to the lab.
The October report by an office of the National Nuclear Security Administration said the National Ignition Facility is using a pay scale that results in it not contributing its fair share to the overall running of Lawrence Lab.
That means other departments have been left to pick up the tab, which amounts to about $80 million in fiscal year 2010, according to the report. The lab also researches weapons, environmental science, engineering, nanotechnology, biotechnology and cybersecurity.
Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the security administration, which is part of the Department of Energy and oversees the lab, says the opinion from the Office of Financial Management is part of an internal review of the fusion facility's contributions to the lab.
It is standard practice for a facility to pay less to support the lab's overall costs while it is under construction, he said. Construction on the facility was completed earlier this year.
Officials are now deciding whether to transition to a different payment scale to the lab as it moves into the program phase, LaVera said.
"The Department, NNSA and the lab have been open and transparent about its funding for NIF, which is regularly reported internally and to Congress," he said.
But critics disagree.
"This illegal scheme circumvents the United States Congress, which sets NIF's budget each year, and violates our nation's most basic federal contracting laws," said Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs, the nuclear watchdog group that received the report and provided it to the Oakland Tribune.
Kelley called on federal officials to investigate.
Construction on the fusion facility began in 1997 and was completed in March after delays and cost overruns. The multibillion dollar facility uses lasers to heat and compress hydrogen fuel to achieve nuclear fusion, which could provide the country with another clean energy source.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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