The House Appropriations Committee wants the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study what impact an Energy Department order on oversight by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has on public and worker safety at nuclear weapons sites.
The panel is concerned that DOE Order 140.1, enacted in May 2018, effectively restricts the DNFSB’s ability to “carry out its congressionally-mandated responsibilities,” according to the energy and water subcommittee report attached to the fiscal 2020 funding bill for DOE, the DNFSB, and other agencies.
House appropriators passed the bill Tuesday on a 31-21 vote.
The report calls upon the comptroller general, who directs the GAO, to also evaluate whether the order prevents DNFSB access to information it needs to evaluate the safety of Energy Department nuclear facilities.
Further, the panel directed DOE to enter into a memorandum of understanding governing access to pre-decisional information. The Energy Department has questioned how much access the safety board needs to discussions prior to final decisions regarding safety and health at the sites.
The legislation does not set a deadline for GAO to issue its report. It could be taken up by the full House in June.
Among other things, Order 140.1 says DOE contractors need permission from the agency to interact with DNFSB representatives. The order also gives the Energy Department authority to restrict access to certain meetings and information.
“The Department continues to assert that the Order will not change its relationship with the DNFSB; a plain reading of the Order contradicts this,” the Appropriations Committee said in the bill report.
DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton has urged DOE to revise Order 140.1 to eliminate language “allowing the department to determine where we look.” The Energy Department has said the order helps the agency “speak with one voice” to the DNFSB. The agency wants to simplifying its interactions with the board, and make its positions clear.
The department says, in practice, very little is changing on DNFSB access to records and people.
While Hamilton has publicly suggested the DNFSB could file suit over the order, no legal action has been taken at this point, an agency spokesman said by email Friday.
The DNFSB has no formal regulatory power over DOE, but it may make official recommendations, putting the onus on the secretary of energy to publicly agree or disagree.
The board was created by Congress in 1988 to provide health and safety oversight of DOE nuclear operations. It has a staff of about 100 people, including resident inspectors at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and the Y-12 National Security Site in Tennessee.
The House Appropriations Committee approved just over $30 million for the board in fiscal 2020, about $1 million above the request.
In another DNFSB-related matter, the agency spokesman said a rescheduled date should be announced soon for a public hearing originally set for this past Wednesday. The board intends to convene a hearing in Washington, D.C., on past radioactive waste accidents at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory and its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
