Sean Sullivan will resign from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety board on Feb. 2, a little more than a year after President Donald Trump elevated the longtime board member to chairman.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) announced Sullivan’s decision late Friday in a press release. In a memo to DNFSB staff, Sullivan said he is resigning to pursue other interests and that “[o]ur fine staff deserves to be led by an executive the staff believes in.”
The five-member DNFSB is an independent federal agency that serves as an occupational health and safety watchdog for Department of Energy defense nuclear sites. That includes active nuclear weapon facilities and Cold War nuclear-cleanup sites. The DNFSB has no regulatory power but can issue safety recommendations with which the secretary of energy must publicly agree or disagree.
Last year, Sullivan recommended that Trump ask Congress to dissolve DNFSB. The nonprofit journalism group Center for Public Integrity first reported that.
Sullivan joined the board in 2012. A nuclear navy veteran who practiced law privately after leaving the service, he flirted with a political career twice: in 2008, he ran for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District of Connecticut; in 2010 he ran for state Senate. He was on the Republican ticket both times.
Bruce Hamilton, the DNFSB vice chairman, will become acting chairman after Sullivan leaves, according to the board press release.
The next DNFSB member will have to be nominated by the president, then confirmed by the Senate.