ARLINGTON, VA. – The current administration is taking “meaningful action on regulatory reform” on a “breathtaking” timeline at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), according to Kim Budil, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
“So I think the biggest thing for us has been the meaningful action on regulatory reform,” Budil said on a panel at Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit last week. “We’ve talked about regulatory reform with each new administration as they come in. Everyone is very enthusiastic, committees are formed, ideas are generated, white papers are written, and really nothing changes. But I’d say what’s happening right now is that the rule sets are being re-evaluated and rewritten on a time scale that’s breathtaking.”
Budil added that “when we get relief from some of these requirements, we have to be ready to show the kinds of benefits that we have been saying will accrue if you relieve these different types of regulations. So I think that shift and the meaningful action that’s being taken right now is very exciting and is a huge opportunity for the enterprise.”
The changes have been “everything from safety and security to to business processes, to project management, to construction,” Budil said.
On the sidelines of the summit, Budil told the Monitor the hope for regulatory reform is that a “life extension program, which typically now takes somewhere between 10 and 15 years to complete, could be done in a timescale much more like five years.”
“So what the team at NNSA and DOE is doing right now is trying to understand, how do we create an environment that manages risk appropriately, ensures that we are safe and secure and good stewards of the taxpayer dollar, but really has the risk balance right so that we ensure that we don’t forego mission outcomes for a little bit more compliance, a little bit more process to assure ourselves,” Budil said.