EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVELS FOR LIFE EXTENSION PROGRAMS.

SEC. 3112. [50 U.S.C. 2538f] EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVELS FOR LIFE EXTENSION PROGRAMS. (a) In General.—Subtitle A of title XLII of the Atomic Energy Defense Act (50 U.S.C. 2521 et seq.), as amended by section 3111(a)(1), is further amended by adding at the end the following new section: “SEC. 4224. EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVELS FOR LIFE EXTENSION PROGRAMS “(a) Review of Contractor Earned Value Management Systems.—The Administrator shall enter into an arrangement with an independent entity under which that entity shall— “(1) review and validate whether the earned value management systems of contractors of the Administration for life extension programs meet the earned value management national standard; and “(2) conduct periodic surveillance reviews of such systems to ensure that such systems maintain compliance with that standard through program completion. “(b) Benchmarks for Technology Readiness Levels.—The Administrator shall— “(1) establish specific benchmarks for technology readiness levels of critical technologies for life extension programs at key decision points; and “(2) ensure that critical technologies meet such benchmarks at such decision points. “(c) Applicability.—This section shall apply to programs that, as of the date of the enactment of this section, have not entered phase 3 of the nuclear weapons acquisition process or phase 6.3 of a nuclear weapons life extension program. “(d) Definition.—In this section, the term ‘earned value management national standard’ means the most recent version of the EIA-748 Earned Value Management System Standard published by the National Defense Industrial Association.” . (b) Clerical Amendment.—The table of contents for the Atomic Energy Defense Act is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 4223, as added by section 3111(a)(2), the following new item: “Sec. 4224. Earned value management and technology readiness levels for life extension programs.” .