The Senate last week reappointed the three serving members on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) and filled one of its vacant positions.
The Senate on July 2 by voice vote approved the nominations of Thomas Summers, Joyce Connery, Jessie Hill Roberson, and Bruce Hamilton, according to the website Congress.gov.
Summers is the only new face to the independent health and safety watchdog for Department of Energy nuclear facilities. The former Air Force officer won a twofold approval from the Senate — both to serve out a partial term that ends on Oct. 18 of this year, followed by a full term into October 2024. He was nominated to the partial term in January 2019, to fill a spot previously held by former DNFSB Chairman Sean Sullivan, who resigned in February 2018 after recommending the Donald Trump administration abolish the agency.
As of Thursday, Summers was not listed on the DNFSB website. “We do not yet have an official start date for Mr. Summers,” said DNFSB spokeswoman Tara Tadlock in an email. The other three continue their work uninterrupted, she added.
The DNFSB has up to five members. Although the agency lacks actual regulatory power, it makes health and safety recommendations to which the secretary of energy must accept or reject. The agency has a $30 million annual budget and a staff of roughly 100 people, including resident inspectors DOE locations including the Hanford Site in Washington state, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Summers and Connery both were nominated in May and then reported out of the Senate Armed Services Committee on June 24. Their terms end on Oct. 18, 2024.
Connery joined the panel in August 2015 during the Barack Obama administration and served as chair until January 2017. Her prior term actually expired in October 2019. Before joining the DNFSB, Connery worked for the Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration and served two tours at the White House National Security Council.
Hamilton was first appointed to the DNFSB by Obama in August 2015, then made chairman in October 2018 by President Donald Trump after a stint as acting chairman. The former nuclear industry executive and naval nuclear officer will serve out the unexpired term of Daniel Santos, which is set to expire Oct. 18, 2022. Hamilton was nominated to this latest term in January 2019 and reported out of the Senate Armed Services Committee last November.
A veteran of government and commercial nuclear organizations, including service as DOE assistant secretary of environmental management, Roberson has been a DNFSB member since April 2010. Her confirmation moved in lockstep with Hamilton’s, for a term that ends Oct. 18, 2023.
The fifth slot on the safety panel is vacant. Lisa Vickers, a National Nuclear Security Administration facility representative for the Production Office at the Pantex Plant in Texas, was nominated to the DNFSB in January 2019. But her nomination never made it out of Senate Armed Services and she has not been renominated.
The White House declined comment on Vickers and any potential new nominee.
