Office of Environmental Management: Managing America's Defense Nuclear Waste

In 1989, the Office of Environmental Management (EM) was established within the Department of Energy (DoE) to lead a multibillion-dollar, decades-long effort to clean up dangerous materials and take other actions to protect the environment and the health of communities near these sites. Expressing concern about shortcomings in federal oversight, control and accountability, repeated cost and schedule overruns, and numerous challenges to contract awards, the Senate and House Appropriations Committees asked the National Academy to undertake a management review of the EM Program.