WASHINGTON, D.C. – While the Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup manager said Wednesday her office will not use a new agency order to thwart oversight by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), members of the panel remained apprehensive.
Order 140.1, issued in May, will not change the relationship between DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and its independent nuclear safety watchdog, according to Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White.
The DNFSB monitors safety at defense nuclear sites, including those undergoing environmental remediation under White’s office. The two parties have long had a good relationship and the board’s “independent” analysis and advice is important to safe operations, she said during a DNFSB public hearing on the new order.
The department’s order says “consolidated DOE positions on policy” should be reached before interacting with the board, so the department will “speak with one voice” to DNFSB. The order also says DNFSB requests for information from government contractors should be routed through a DOE liaison officer.
The Office of Environmental Management has no intention of trying to deny board inspectors access to certain properties, White said. “It is not intended to preclude the board from doing your job,” she added. At the same time, “DOE cannot abdicate our responsibility to manage the risk” in its remediation operations.
But members of DNFSB, its staff, and the public said the plain language of the order could be used to limit the board’s prompt access to key Energy Department records and meetings deemed deliberative.
Acting DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton said his view has changed little since a prior hearing in August with other DOE officials, including Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette. “I like what I hear from the Department of Energy on this order. I don’t like what I read.”
“I understand all of you are saying there is no change [in existing policy]. But a literal reading of the order indicates there is change,” said DNFSB member Daniel Santos.
