Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk met privately with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Jan. 27, a board spokesperson confirmed Monday.
Members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) leadership of DOE and its $7.5-billion Office of Environmental Management “try to meet periodically to discuss updates,” in closed sessions, DNFSB associate director for board operations Tara Tadlock.
There were no presentation materials used at the quarterly meeting, listed on the DNFSB January calendar, Tadlock said.
The DNFSB provided Weapons Complex Morning Briefing with a list of participants. Leading the DNFSB contingent was chair Joyce Connery as well as board members Thomas Summers and Jessie Hill Roberson along with a trio of DNFSB senior staffers—— executive director Joel Spangenberg, technical director Chris Roscetti and general counsel Kevin Lyskowski.
Members of DOE participating were Turk, his chief of staff Arpita Bhattacharyya, senior adviser Candice Robertson, special assistant Sandie Raines, general counsel Emily Hammond and DOE’s representative to DNFSB, Joe Olencz.
William (Ike) White, senior adviser and ranking federal official at the Office of Environmental Management, was not listed among the attendees. DNFSB and the DOE have yet to formally approve a memorandum of understanding on information sharing between the federal entities. During the Donald Trump administration, DNFSB successfully pushed back hard on a DOE proposal seen by the board as potentially restricting access to certain DOE staff and records at defense nuclear facilities.
The DNFSB was created by Congress to provide independent advice to the secretary of energy on defense nuclear facilities. While it lacks outright regulatory power, it can publish recommendations which the secretary must then respond to in writing.
