With the COVID-19 pandemic easing, most of the Washington, D.C. headquarters staff for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is back at the office although employees have the option to continue to telecommute with their manager’s approval, a spokesperson for the agency said in an email.
“The Resident Inspectors were onsite providing oversight during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to provide onsite oversight of DOE/NNSA,” the spokesperson said Friday in reference to inspectors who review safety of nuclear defense facilities for the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
Maximum telework for the DNFSB ended last month.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1988 to monitor the nuclear weapons complex. While it lacks actual enforcement powers, the five board members of the roughly 100-employee DNFSB have the power to make public safety recommendations to the secretary of energy, who must then publicly accept or reject the recommendations.
