October 17, 1997 

Audit of Funding for Advanced Radioisotope Power Systems

The Department of Energy's (Department) Advanced Radioisotope Power Systems Program maintains the sole national capability and facilities to produce radioisotope
power systems for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Defense, and other Federal agencies. For the past seven years the program
emphasis has been on providing power systems for NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn, which was launched earlier this month. We initiated this audit to determine whether the
Department received proper reimbursement from NASA for the radioisotope power systems produced.