The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has invited the head of the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management office to a Nov. 28 public hearing about a controversial order the board fears will limit its access to defense-nuclear sites across the country.
And, the independent federal safety watchdog said, Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management (EM) Anne White had better not send someone else in her stead.
“As the Board specifically desires your perspective, this invitation may not be delegated,” DNFSB acting Chairman Bruce Hamilton wrote in separate Oct. 16 invitations to White and Paul Dabbar: DOE undersecretary for science and White’s direct boss at the department.
A board spokesperson said Monday that White had yet to accept the invitation.
While White remains a prospective guest at the hearing, Dabbar evidently will not participate. That is according to a draft agenda the board posted on its website last week. In Dabbar’s stead, the DNFSB hopes one of the seven Environmental Management field office managers will attend.
Which of the seven will merit an invitation is unclear; the board’s agenda agenda lists “Field Office Manager (TBD)” as one of participants on the first panel of the meeting, along with White and Chris Roscetti, DNFSB technical director. Yet-unidentified representatives from stakeholder groups would populate the second panel.
In May, the Department of Energy issued Order 140.1, which set strict new guidelines for how the agency and its contractors interact with DNFSB personnel. Order 140.1 would cut off the DNFSB’s access to about 70 percent of the Department of Energy nuclear sites the agency now inspects, Roscetti said in an August board hearing called to discuss the order publicly for the first time. That includes active nuclear weapon sites and Cold War nuclear-weapons cleanup sites.
The DNFSB claims the Department of Energy lacks the legal authority to limit the board’s congressionally authorized access to defense nuclear sites and the people who work there.
