The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on Tuesday canceled a planned March 19 open hearing in Aiken, S.C., about the future of the Savannah River Site.
The independent federal nuclear health and safety watchdog called off the event because of witness availability, a board spokesperson said.
The DNFSB had proposed witnesses including:
- William (Ike) White, Department of Energy senior adviser for environmental management.
- Jeff Griffin, DOE Office of Environmental Management associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations, who is leaving the agency effective today.
- Dae Chung, DOE Environmental Management deputy assistant secretary for safety, security, and quality assurance.
- Michael Mikolanis, DOE-Savannah River’s assistant manager for nuclear material stabilization.
- DOE-Savannah River’s chief engineer.
“The Board just voted today to postpone the hearing while we work on the availability of witnesses,” the DNFSB spokesperson wrote in an email. “We do not have a new date yet, and that will be determined upon the availability of the desired witnesses.”
The board spokesperson did not comment about whether the delay was due in any way to increasing cases nationwide of the 2019 coronavirus that causes the flu-like COVID-19 disease. However, the DNFSB postponed the meeting as the Energy Department is operating under travel restrictions that advise employees to cut out “non-essential domestic travel, as appropriate.”
