DOE SAFETY CHIEF SPEAKS OUT AGAINST PROPOSED OVERSIGHT CHANGES

The Department of Energy’s top safety official added his voice yesterday to criticism of a legislative proposal that would significantly change how DOE and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board oversee safety at Department sites. At issue is the House Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Authorization Act, which includes provisions that would shut out DOE’s Office of Health, Safety and Security from oversight of the National Nuclear Security Administration and shift the NNSA toward performance-based oversight rather than transactional oversight. The bill would also significantly alter the role of the DNFSB by having the Board take potential cost impacts more into account when issuing safety recommendations. “For the credibility of DOE with the workers and the public, it’s necessary to have a viable independent regulatory model. This has been one of the significant lessons learned from the recent tragic nuclear disaster at Fukushima,” DOE Chief Health, Safety and Security Officer Glenn Podonsky said at a DNFSB meeting yesterday in Washington. “The regulatory model currently employed by DOE, with the Defense Board, HSS and line management, has served the DOE well for over 23 years. Changes to the current check and balance of operations handling the most hazardous materials and the most deadly weapons known to mankind defies logic and potentially jeopardizes the health and safety of thousands of workers, and this is something we should not tolerate.”