DNFSB: Metrics Table to Replace Full DOE Criticality Safety Report

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) is allowing nuclear criticality safety annual reporting requirement to allow the Department of Energy (DOE) to submit an annual metrics table instead of a full report on criticality safety at defense nuclear facilities. In a Feb. 26 letter to the Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, DNFSB Chairman Joyce Connery said that to minimize the administrative burden of creating a full report, the requirement for the DOE’s nuclear criticality safety program would be an annual metrics table – and briefing – that encompasses the number of criticality safety infractions at each site, the number of contractor-identified noncompliances with facility safety standards, the number of criticality safety assessments conducted, criticality safety staffing levels, and DOE’s assessment of contractor performance on criticality safety. The letter said the DOE’s fiscal 2015 annual metrics table and briefing is due to the DNFSB by April 1.