NRC agency has trouble tracking its guns

Mike Stuckey Senior news editor • Profile

The agency tasked with sensitive investigations of the U.S. nuclear industry is having trouble keeping track of its guns, according to a new audit.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of Investigations was unable during a surprise inspection to produce 15 out of 17 firearms it listed as being stored at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md. A third gun that was found at headquarters was listed as being stored in another office.

Auditors eventually accounted for all 48 handguns listed in NRC property records, but subsequent inspection determined that serial numbers recorded for 13 of them contained typographical errors.

Those are among headlines in a July 12 report by the NRC’s inspector general on how the NRC manages $26 million worth of equipment, ranging from laptop computers to cameras.

According to the audit, the mistakes in tracking guns are among numerous problems with an error-filled property tracking system that “lacks adequate accountability” and sets the NRC up for “loss of property and information, inefficient use of staff time, and potential unnecessary expense.”

“A rigorous effort by the NRC senior management is needed to initiate and sustain improvements to the property management program,” according to the audit, which points out that the agency is in the midst of adding 228 full-time employees to its existing staff of 3,270.

The NRC, which has an annual budget of $742 million, is charged with overseeing the non-military use of nuclear materials within the United States.

The NRC’s Office of Public Affairs would not answer specific questions about the audit, but an agency spokesman issued this statement: "The OIG's audit discovered some record-keeping discrepancies between the official agency property records and the Office of Investigations' internal records regarding firearms issued to OI agents. In fact, OI's internal records were thorough and complete, and no firearms were unaccounted for. In the course of operations, new weapons were issued and agents relocated; such changes should have been noted in the official agency records but were not. The NRC takes its record-keeping requirements seriously, especially with regards to such important items as firearms. The records are being corrected."

The Office of Investigations was the subject of an MSNBC.com report in April detailing how it quietly obtained armed federal police status for its agents, who have never arrested anyone in 25 years of operations.

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