Like so many other federal workplaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board continues to have most of its staff working from home, according to the agency’s Annual Report to Congress.
“The Board has proven its effectiveness while in maximum telework posture, despite the unexpected challenges of adapting work practices to remote work situations,” according to the report made public late last month by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).
There is no timeline in place to curtail the maximum reliance on telecommuting to inhibit the spread of the coronavirus, according to the report. The administration of President Joe Biden has tweaked the pandemic workplace policy since Jan. 20, DNFSB’s manager of board operations Tara Tadlock said by telephone this week. Offices are limited to having only 25% of the pre-COVID headcount on-site and DNFSB is below that level, she added.
The independent safety watchdog for the Department of Energy moved most of its staff to remote work in March of 2020. In December the agency conducted its first “virtual open meeting” and plans to hold more of those in the future, according to the annual report.
During 2020, the board’s documents posted online attracted a steady number of eyeballs, with DNFSB correspondence being accessed more than 7,000 times via its public website.
The most popular items were resident inspector weekly reports for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico with 3,144 views, Savannah River Site in South Carolina with 2,875 and the Hanford Site in Washington state with 2,584. While Hanford is strictly a DOE Office of Environmental Management operation, the other two have extensive facilities for both the cleanup office and the DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
The DNFSB was created by Congress in 1988. The agency lacks enforcement power, but provides recommendations and advice to the secretary of energy on public health and safety issues at DOE defense nuclear facilities.
