Personnel issues for armed contractors protecting weapons-grade nuclear material, says GAO

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has examined the Department of Energy’s (DoE) efforts protect sites with weapons grade nuclear materials, called “special nuclear material (SNM), partly by “transforming” the sites' contractor-provided protective forces into a tactical response force (TRF), with capabilities akin to the U.S. military.

How well is DoE doing?

The answer varies from SNM site to SNM site, according to GAO.

Contractors provide “armed security” at six sites that “store and process Category I SNM,” GAO notes. “DOE protective forces at each of these sites are covered under separate contracts and collective bargaining agreements between contractors and protective force unions. As a result, the management and compensation -- in terms of pay and benefits -- of protective forces vary.”

That variability means that some sites have already implemented such TRF requirements as increasing “move, shoot, and communicate” skills of protective units, others “do not plan to complete TRF implementation until the end of fiscal year 2011,” according to GAO.

In addition, says GAO, there are issues involving DoE efforts to “manage postretirement and pension liabilities for its contractors.” Those issues mean that some TRF members might not be able to continue their work until retirement age, GAO says.

One answer, which DoE rejects, according to GAO, is to “federalize” the TRF.

GAO’s bottom line, regardless of whether the forces are federalized or the current contractor system is kept in place, is that DoE should “address protective forces’ personnel system issues.”