Local communities near Department of Energy sites are seeking greater involvement in meetings held by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. In a letter sent last week to the Board, the Energy Communities Alliance questioned the lack of local government participation in a public meeting the Board recently held near Los Alamos National Laboratory. “No local government officials in the northern New Mexico region were notified that the meeting was taking place. The only way Los Alamos officials found out about the meeting was through an email from DOE. An advertisement that ran in the Santa Fe newspaper is not sufficient notice for local government officials or community members that are located 30 miles away in Los Alamos,” wrote ECA Executive Director Seth Kirshenberg.
Kirshenberg wrote that it is “essential” that the DNFSB get feedback from local communities near DOE sites, given the Board’s role in helping to provide oversight. “Local government officials at DOE sites consider it their mission to protect the health and safety of their communities and citizens, and they can provide some of the best information on these risks and lessons learned from their experiences with DOE,” he wrote, adding, “In the future DNFSB should reach out to local governments at sites they are reviewing and provide them with an opportunity to address the Board. ECA encourages you to establish a point of contact with local governments at each site to directly disseminate information about your meetings and other activities.”
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