With long-timer Jessie Hill Roberson’s Wednesday retirement from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the federal government’s independent safety watchdog for nuclear-weapon sites is down to two members.
Chair Joyce Connery and Vice Chair Thomas Summers are the only two active members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), leaving the nominally five-member panel without a quorum for the first time since its creation by Congress in 1998.
The DNFSB chair can still issue safety recommendations to the secretary of energy for up to one year after falling below quorum. Chair Connery is required to notify the House and Senate Armed Services Committee within 30 days that a quorum no longer exists, according to DNFSB.
Connery’s term is scheduled to expire in October 2024 and Summers in October 2025. A manager at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, Patricia Lee, has been nominated to the board by President Joe Biden but no confirmation hearing has been held by the Senate Armed Forces Committee.
In an interview Monday with Exchange Monitor, Roberson expressed hope that the board will be returned to a full lineup of five members. Roberson’s full interview will appear in Friday’s edition of Weapons Complex Monitor.
