March 22, 2001

Facility Maintenance at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

The average age of facilities at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory is 27 years and some of the facilities are more than 50 years old. Even though the facilities are aging, the Department of Energy's (DOE) Idaho Operations Office (Idaho) goal is to maintain its facilities in a safe and reliable state and to maximize their useful life. To achieve its goal, Idaho spent an estimated $72 million on a combination of preventive and corrective maintenance in Fiscal Year 1999. The objective of our audit was to determine whether Idaho maintained facilities in a safe and economical manner.