President Joe Biden’s nomination of Patricia Lee of South Carolina to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has been submitted to the Senate, the White House said late Wednesday.
Lee, who has worked in radiation protection for decades and is currently portfolio manager for the digital enterprise at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory, was announced as Biden’s choice for a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) seat in February.
The Lee nomination was sent over to the Senate Wednesday, according to a White House news release. The nomination was referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee. If confirmed by the Senate, Lee would serve a term expiring Oct. 18, 2027.
News of Lee’s impending nomination was cheered on by the DNFSB, which is set up as a five-person panel, but could drop to only two following the anticipated retirement of longtime fed Jessie Hill Roberson in October.
It is important to keep the DOE nuclear safety watchdog as fully staffed as possible, DNFSB Chair Joyce Connery told a government contractors group last month. The board’s vice chair, Thomas Summers, is currently the panel’s only Republican representative. Connery’s term is scheduled to expire in October 2024 and Summers in October 2025.
Lee has been at the Savannah River National Laboratory near Aiken, S.C., for 23 years. In her current post, Lee is developing an integrated computer strategy for research and development at the national laboratory, according to a White House press release. Lee has also worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At other times in her career, Lee has served as the Savannah River lab’s interim director of the chief information office and been a senior technical adviser to DOE’s assistant secretary for the Office of Environmental Management.
Congress created DNFSB in 1989 to provide outside analysis and recommendations to DOE. While it lacks actual regulatory teeth, it can make public recommendations to the secretary of energy, who must then respond to them publicly.
