The federal agency that provides outside safety advice to the Department of Energy still struggles with a “sustainable organizational culture and climate,” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of Inspector General said last week.
Organizational culture leads the list of the most serious challenges facing the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) in fiscal 2024, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Office of Inspector General said in a Nov. 3 report.
Four other key challenges in the report include “mission-specific infrastructure,” which includes cyber and data security; a “systematic safety focus” on its technical reviews; recruiting and retaining key staff along with elevating DNFSB’s clout.
Concerns over DNFSB workplace culture are not new.
The Inspector General’s office said both its own prior audits and a 2018 report by the National Academy of Public Administration found internal problems hurt the board’s effectiveness. While progress has been made, more work is needed, according to the inspector general’s latest report.
“[T]here are ongoing concerns about employee morale, recruiting new hires, and retention,” the Inspector General’s office said. “One significant area of concern has been the availability of sufficient technical specialists to support the agency’s mission.”
The board also “faces challenges in recruiting and retaining executive talent,” according to the Inspector General. The report said DNFSB lacked an operations director for more than a year. That hole will be filled in December, as the board announced last week.
The board also needs to fill its technical director vacancy, the Inspector General’s office said.
“The Board is committed to filling vacancies with high quality staff in a timely manner,” a DNFSB spokesperson said in a Wednesday email reply to Exchange Monitor. The new executive director of operations will start Dec. 4 “and we expect to post the technical director vacancy in the near future,” the spokesperson said.
The DNFSB declined to comment on the lingering organizational culture and retention issues cited by the report.
The report also alluded to DNFSB’s current lack of a quorum as the five-person panel has dwindled to two members following retirement of Jessie Hill Roberson.
That might be remedied eventually, as Patricia Lee, a manager at DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina who was nominated to the board by the Joe Biden administration, recently cleared the Senate Armed Services Committee.
DNFSB is working on a multi-year “human capital strategic plan” for recruiting, retention and succession planning, according to the inspector general’s latest report. In 2022 the board started working with a human resources contractor on some of the human resources issues.
The DNSFB has requested funding for the equivalent of 125 full-time staffers in fiscal 2024. This represents an increase of 5 positions compared to the agency’s goal of reaching a total of 120 staff members in fiscal 2023. The board fiscal 2024 budget request is $47.2 million, up from the $41.4 million appropriated in fiscal 2023.
