DNFSB Chair Connery reaching end of term but not leaving just yet

This Friday, Oct. 18, will mark the end of the official term for Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chair Joyce Connery, but Connery will stay on longer to prevent the panel from losing a quorum, a spokesperson said Wednesday.

A “quorum saving provision” in Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) rules allows Connery to stay on past expiration until another board member is confirmed,” Tara Tadlock, chief of staff to the DNFSB executive director of operations, said in a Wednesday email. “Ms. Connery has stated she will be staying on board for now.”

There are currently three members on DNFSB, which is set up as a five-person panel, according to the board’s website.

Connery, who previously worked for the National Nuclear Security Administration, first joined DNFSB in 2015 after being nominated by President Barack Obama.

The other two active members are vice chair Thomas Summers and Patricia Lee. Summers, a retired Air Force colonel, was confirmed by the Senate in July 2020 and his term runs until Oct. 18, 2025. Lee has three decades of radiation protection work at DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lee was confirmed by the Senate this summer and joined DNFSB in early September.

The Senate Armed Services Committee last month unanimously backed the nomination of William “Ike” White to the safety board. But White must still be confirmed by the full Senate. White most recently spent years at the helm of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and has also work for DNFSB and NNSA

The DNFSB started operations on Dec. 18, 1989, created by Congress to provide outside safety analysis and recommendations to DOE, according to a 2009 history of the agency filed with the Library of Congress.