ENERGY

GAO to Audit Fluor Contract: The federal government’s top financial watchdog agency will launch a probe into allegations of financial irregularities and safety problems in a major nuclear cleanup program managed by a Fluor Corp. subsidiary. A Government Accounting Office official said the agency will also examine the quality of the Energy Department’s oversight of the $2.2-billion contract at the government’s former nuclear processing plant in Fernald, Ohio. The GAO investigation was requested by several Ohio lawmakers in the wake of reports of hundreds of safety violations and unauthorized and excessive spending that may have cheated the government out of millions of dollars. Irvine-based Fluor denied any wrongdoing.