As of Tuesday, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and the Department of Energy are still tinkering with a draft memorandum of understanding about sharing information at nuclear-weapon sites while a Donald Trump administration order limiting DOE interactions with the board remains in effect.
That’s according to a spokesperson for the independent federal board, which makes health and safety recommendations at DOE nuclear-weapon sites, except those focused on Navy nuclear programs.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) and DOE had hoped to have the draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) ready for leadership review at the agencies by Jan. 15, according to a notional timetable published last year.
Although that had not happened at deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, “work on the MOU is progressing,” a DNFSB spokesperson wrote this week in an email.
In October, the board — a roughly $30-million-a-year agency with a staff of around 100 full-timers — announced that it and the DOE agreed to form an interagency working group that could produce a memorandum of understanding for approval by the leadership of both agencies by Feb. 26, 2021. The board posted the working group’s charter, with a notional timetable, online.
That timetable — a goal, not an agreed-to deadline between the agencies — may not hold, the DNFSB spokesperson said this week.
Meanwhile, it’s an open question how the Joe Biden administration’s DOE will approach the Trump administration’s Order 140.1, which remained in effect at deadline. Even after a watering down at Congress’ insistence, the almost-three-year-old order still limits interactions between DNFSB and DOE staff, including federal employees and contractors.
