The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is scheduled to meet Aug. 28 to discuss a Department of Energy order that could limit the independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog’s ability to police the U.S. nuclear-weapons complex.
The board has suggested that senior DOE officials, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry, National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, and Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar attend the three-session hearing at the board’s Washington headquarters.
The DNFSB put the meeting on the slate this week, only days after the nonprofit news organization ProPublica and the local Santa Fe New Mexican published coverage of the May order that directs DOE to “speak with one voice” to the DNFSB; cements tighter agency control over contractor interactions with the board; and removes a George W. Bush-era directive that contractors treat DNFSB staff courteously.
A board spokesperson this week would not comment on either the recent article or the order itself, instead directing Weapons Complex Morning Briefing to the newly scheduled hearing.
The first session of the half-day hearing would primarily involve remarks from board members and a statement from Perry. That would be followed by discussions with other DOE officials on three topics: changes to DNFSB access to data, sites, and employees due to the order; “intended changes from the DOE interface manual ro the Order and execution challenges”; and how the order might affect DNFSB site inspectors. The third and final session would be open for public comment.
The five-member DNFSB —currently at four members after Chairman Sean Sullivan resigned earlier this year following news reports that he recommended dismahntling the board — is an independent federal agency established by Congress. The board has no regulatory authority, but it may make safety recommendations with which the secretary of energy must publicly agree of disagree. The board has posted resident inspectors at the Hanford, Los Alamos, Pantex, Savannah River, and Oak Ridge sites, and its technical staffers regularly visit other facilities throughout the DOE weapons complex.
This year, Congress appropriated about $30 million for the DNFSB: a level the White House requested again for fiscal 2019, and which lawmakers again appear ready to provide.
In its day, the Barack Obama administration also bristled at the DNFSB. Former National Nuclear Security Administration boss Frank Klotz, prior to his departure from federal service earlier this year, said the board should cease publishing weekly safety reports on active and shuttered defense-nuclear sites across the country.
