A federal safety panel wants to know how the Department of Energy will ensure nuclear safety given reduced staffing and restructuring.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on July 25 formally requested DOE brief it within 30 days on continuing to ensure safety at the department’s nuclear cleanup and weapons stockpile branches.
“Per statute, DOE has been granted the authority to self-regulate nuclear and worker safety at its defense nuclear facilities,” DNFSB Acting Chairman Thomas Summers said in the July 25 letter to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
“As DOE contemplates changes to its organizational structure and regulatory approach—aligned with your recent testimony to Congress on improving efficiency and prioritizing core missions—the board encourages DOE to implement changes that affect nuclear safety deliberately and with recognition of the many important lessons DOE has learned from past experiences with nuclear safety oversight,” according to DNFSB letter.
“This is necessary to identify and avoid unintended consequences that could compromise the current high level of nuclear safety or leave DOE line managers in the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Office of Environmental Management with less awareness of safety issues across the defense nuclear complex,” Summers went on to say.
The DNFSB was created by congress more than decade decades ago to provide DOE with independent nuclear safety analysis and advice.
Scores of DOE staff have been laid off or left the agency via the so-called “fork-in-the-road” buyout packages from the White House since Jan. 20.
