The lone member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) to oppose its recently announced reorganization slammed the plan in comments made public this week.
In a record of votes taken Aug. 13-14, Joyce Connery — who chaired the independent watchdog of Energy Department nuclear operations during the latter half of the Barack Obama administration — characterized the proposal to cut the DNFSB’s full-time staff to 79 from 100 as an overreach by acting Chairman Bruce Hamilton.
“Any significant attempt at diminution of the Agency, its mission, or function should be considered in full public view with stakeholders able to make their views known,” Connery wrote in a comment appended to her vote.
Hamilton essentially created the proposal in secret and sprang it on his colleagues “without so much as a discussion,” Connery wrote. In doing so, she said, Hamilton breached the spirit of the 1988 legislation that created the DNFSB, which Connery said provides that “each Member of the Board shall have equal responsibility and authority in establishing decisions and determining actions of the Board.”
Hamilton, in an Aug. 16 interview with Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, acknowledged he developed the reorganization plan alone. That did not deter the board from approving Hamilton’s proposal by a 3-1 vote. Jessie Hill Roberson and Daniel Santos joined Hamilton to approve the reorganization. The DNFSB has had only four of its five seats filled since February, when Sean Sullivan resigned as chairman after suggesting that Congress eliminate the board.
Santos said Hamilton’s proposed reorganization, if properly executed, could “improve the early identification, awareness, and independent assessment of safety issues at defense nuclear facilities to inform the Secretary of Energy before they become major problems that could impact public health and safety.”
Hamilton said the reorganization would focus most of the job cuts at agency headquarters in Washington, D.C. Layoffs should not be necessary, the acting chair said, because the DNFSB can slim down by not hiring anyone to replace full-timers who retire or quit the agency.
