DOE Didn’t Say ‘No’ to DNFSB in 2021

The Department of Energy did not reject any information requests from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board for the six-months ending Dec. 31, the safety watchdog told Congress this month, which amounts to zero refusals during the first year of the Joe Biden administration.

“The Board has no denials of access to information to report in the past six months,” Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Chair Joyce Connery, said in a two-paragraph letter to Congress dated Jan. 3.

This is the second straight six-month period without the agency refusing such requests from DNFSB. Relations between DOE and the safety panel were more acrimonious during the Donald Trump administration after the DOE moved in 2018 — through the still-active Order 140.1 — to more tightly control DNFSB’s access with agency and contractor employees at defense nuclear sites.

Congress has instructed DNFSB to issue regular updates on instances where the five-person board’s information requests were snubbed by DOE.  

Created by Congress in 1988 the DNFSB is a small federal entity with roughly 100 staffers and no real enforcement power. It does, however, have authority to publish health and safety recommendations to DOE regarding defense nuclear sites. The energy secretary must then publicly accept or reject the recommendations.

The DNFSB argued the DOE Order 140.1, issued during the tenure of Energy Secretary Rick Perry, was at odds with the Atomic Energy Act by potentially hindering the board’s ability to evaluate certain parts of nuclear-weapon sites.