Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chairman Bruce Hamilton is resigning from the panel, effective next week, the agency said Monday.
Hamilton submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump, according to a one-paragraph announcement from the agency.
The DNFSB said Hamilton will depart on Sept. 12 – just over two months after he was confirmed by the Senate to a new term through Oct. 18, 2022. The panel’s vice chairman and newest member, Thomas Summers, will step in as acting chairman.
The release does not cite a reason for Hamilton’s resignation. One source familiar with Hamilton’s decision understands the soon-to-be-ex chairman is leaving to attend to family matters.
A Republican first appointed to the bipartisan board in August 2015 by then-President Barack Obama, Hamilton has served as a board member, vice chairman, and acting chairman, according to the agency website. He previously spent four decades in the nuclear industry, including a stint as head of a fuel procurement company.
Hamilton effectively took the reins at the DNFSB after the departure of Chairman Sean Sullivan in February 2018. Sullivan resigned shortly after public disclosure of his letter to the new Donald Trump administration recommending the $30-million, 100-person federal agency be disbanded.
The DNFSB provides independent safety analysis and recommendations to the secretary of energy for the DOE’s nuclear defense facilities. While the agency has no actual regulatory authority, the energy secretary must publicly respond to DNFSB recommendations. It is overseen by a board of up to five members.
As chairman, Hamilton has clashed with the Department of Energy over that agency’s May 2018 Order 140.1. The Energy Department said it was trying to streamline its communications with the DNFSB and speak with one voice on safety issues. However, the DNFSB maintained it would have restricted its access to documents and individuals at nuclear defense facilities. The board eventually won a congressional victory when the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act directed it be given “prompt and unfettered” access to Energy Department staff and facilities.
As a result, the DOE issued a revised order in June to demonstrate it is not trying to declaw the DNFSB. The revised order says Energy Department employees and contractors need not get prior approval from headquarters before speaking with DNFSB staff. The board, however, has indicated it still would like a memorandum to clarify some remaining operational concerns.
Hamilton also annoyed the Energy Communities Alliance in late April when he suggested it was a waste of taxpayer money to schedule a special briefing“to educate a public interest group on complex technical” recommendations to the Energy Department. While Hamilton was outvoted two-to-one and the briefing was approved, the ECA provided its own written retort in June, saying the DNFSB could lose credibility with DOE host communities if it is not willing to explain its stance in plain language to key stakeholders.
The source would not speculate on how the board might change with Summers acting as its chairman.
Summers is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel with more than three decades of active duty. He was sworn into office virtually Aug. 17 after being confirmed by the full Senate in a voice vote July 2 – the same date three incumbent board members, including Hamilton, were also confirmed.
Summers will serve a term set to expire Oct. 18, 2025. Following confirmation, his installation paperwork from the White House stipulated he would be vice chairman, according to DNFSB. For now, at least he will be acting chairman.
Before coming to the DNFSB, Summers served 18 months as a senior adviser on executive level issues at the Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). In that job he dealt with topics such as research, development, testing, and evaluation of defense programs.
The other two current members are Jessie Hill Roberson and Joyce Connery, whose terms end in October 2023 and October 2024, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee has taken on the nomination to fill the fifth and final seat on the DNFSB. President Donald Trump forwarded the nomination of Matthew Moury to the Senate on July 21.
The committee website as of Thursday listed no hearing date to consider the nomination of Moury, a former DNFSB staffer who is now Energy Department associate undersecretary for environment, health, safety, and security. Moury would fill a term previously held by Hamilton, which is set to expire Oct. 18, 2021. Hamilton, in a bureaucratic reshuffling, actually holds a term held by former DNFSB member Daniel Santos, who resigned in March 2019.
