New Mexico’s entire congressional delegation this month called on the Department of Energy to suspend a controversial order that the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) says has curtailed its access to nuclear-weapon sites.
The Energy Department should lift the almost 2-year-old Order 140.1 to comply with recent changes to federal law that require the agency and its contractors to grant the board “prompt and unfettered access” to nuclear weapons facilities and the people who work there, the five Democrats representing New Mexico wrote in a Jan. 17 letter to Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette.
The requirement for “prompt and unfettered access” for DNFSB personnel is included in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. The annual defense policy bill, which also theoretically sets funding limits for DOE and the DNFSB, became law in December, only days after Brouillette became the 15th secretary of energy.
“We will follow closely the Department’s strict adherence to the clear intent of these important legislative provisions,” the lawmakers wrote.
In 2018, Brouillette, then deputy secretary of energy to Secretary Rick Perry, signed Order 140.1, which blocked DNFSB access to nuclear facilities that DOE said posed no hazard to the public. The order also forbade agency and contractor personnel from speaking with DNFSB inspectors without first getting approval from senior DOE management.
The DNFSB complained immediately that the order was illegal, and that the Atomic Energy Act gives the board sole discretion to determine whether a nuclear-weapon site poses a hazard to the public.
The DNFSB does not regulate the Energy Department, but it may make safety recommendations about nuclear weapon sites — except naval nuclear reactor sites — with which the secretary of energy must publicly agree or disagree.
A spokesperson for DOE did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Tuesday.
