Word: gao
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...GAO report, however, has even more pessimistic conclusions that have Reid cheering. The Energy Department has projected that the Yucca Mountain repository will end up costing $57.5 billion and it wants to finish the project by 2010. But the GAO report predicts that the Energy Department not only won't meet those goals but that it also "has no reliable estimate of when, and at what cost, such a repository could be opened." Getting the repository up and running by 2013 is even "questionable," the GAO concludes...
...Reid thinks he's struck the fatal blow. "This report could very well signal the beginning of the end of the Yucca Mountain project," he predicts. He and Berkely had ordered up the GAO probe after an anonymous whistleblower sent a letter to the Energy Department's inspector general charging waste, fraud and abuse in the Yucca project. The GAO findings also come on the heels of revelations that a Chicago law firm the Energy Department hired to help guide the project through the licensing process had been lobbying Congress on behalf of the nuclear industry. The firm denied...
...fast. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, who's furious that the GAO report was prematurely leaked, dismissed the study as "fatally flawed." Abraham appears intent on recommending to President Bush soon that the nuclear waste be located at Yucca. If Bush agrees, Nevada's governor and legislature can still veto the site. But Congress then has 60 days to override the state's disapproval. If it gets to that point, count on Reid to use all his powers as Senate majority whip to block the congressional override...
...airport security screeners miss more than 20% of the potentially dangerous items that pass through X-ray machines, according to the GAO. Their European counterparts are reportedly twice as effective. Reasons? TRAINING: U.S. screeners spend 12 hours in class; those in France study for 60 hours. SALARY: U.S. screeners start at $5.15 an hour, with minimal benefits; Belgian screeners make $14 an hour, with health care, vacation, sick pay, bonuses and a track to managerial positions. TURNOVER: In Europe, less than 50% annually; in the U.S., on average, 126% annually...
...series of government oversight reports have served as a stinging indictment of the sorry performance here at home. Passenger screeners routinely miss about 20% of the weapons and explosives that FAA agents try to slip by them, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO). FAA agents have also found that it is easy to pose as an airport or airline employee or even as a law-enforcement agent...