The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) hopes to meet soon with new U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to discuss public health and safety issues at nuclear sites overseen by his agency.
In a Jan. 16 letter, DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton congratulated Brouillette on his December confirmation as energy secretary and said the board would like to meet during the first three months of 2020 to discuss “challenges” facing the nuclear weapons complex.
Brouillette, former deputy secretary of energy, was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in last month to succeed Rick Perry in the top post at the Energy Department.
The other two current DNFSB members, Jessie Hill Roberson and Joyce Connery, approved submission of the letter to Brouillette. Attached to the letter is a one-page enclosure citing eight challenges at the DOE weapons complex.
Listed first is “resolving differences” between DOE Order 140.1 and language included in the final fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
The board says the department’s 2018 order runs counter to the Atomic Energy Act by restricting its access to oversight of certain parts of nuclear-weapon sites. The order also says the Energy Department should speak with “one voice” to the board – calling upon contractors to channel DNFSB questions through DOE managers.
The DNFSB says the order would hinder its independent federal health-and-safety inspectors from doing their job, by limiting access to certain records and predecisional meetings.
The NDAA requires the secretary of energy to give written notice each time DOE denies DNFSB access to people or locations. A roundup of these denials would then be Congress every six months. The energy secretary must also justify the denials to Congress.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board also wants to discuss measures to protect workers and others around tritium facilities at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina during accident scenarios. The semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration has rebuffed board recommendations on emergency measures to prevent potential widespread tritium contamination. The NNSA says current standards adequately protect workers and the public.
