Longtime member Sean Sullivan was set to leave the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) today after a short and tumultuous run as chairman, during which he suggested eliminating the independent federal agency where he has worked for the last five years.
Sullivan announced his impending exit on Jan. 19 in a memo circulated to DNFSB staff. In the message, Sullivan said he would leave to pursue other opportunities and suggested he had lost the confidence of the board’s roughly 120 full-time staffers.
Sullivan declined an interview request this week. The nonprofit Center for Public Integrity first reported last year that as chairman Sullivan recommended the White House ask Congress to dissolve the DNFSB. Lawmakers ignored the request in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act President Donald Trump signed into law last year, authorizing the board to continue at its standard funding level of about $30 million a year.
Sullivan, a lawyer and nuclear navy veteran, was appointed to the DNFSB is 2012 after two failed bids for office on the Republican ticket. He ran for Congress in Connecticut’s 2nd District in 2008, and for state Senate there in 2010.
Trump elevated Sullivan to chairman in January 2017.
Bruce Hamilton, the board’s vice chairman, was set to take over as acting chair Monday. Although that leaves the board with four voting members, DNFSB rules specify that any motion resulting in a tie vote fails.
The DNFSB has no regulatory authority, but it may make safety recommendations for the Department of Energy’s active nuclear weapons and Cold War cleanup sites, with which the secretary of energy must publicly agree or disagree. If a majority of board members approve a proposed recommendation, it is sent to DOE for a legally mandated review.
The board is now grinding through what could become its first recommendation in the Trump administration, but it could be months before the board publishes the details of that potential measure.
