Susan Beard, the White House’s nominee for Department of Energy inspector general, on Wednesday was still drafting a list of actions she would take to improve safety and whistleblower culture at the agency’s Hanford Site, as requested by a senator on the committee that is the first gatekeeper in her confirmation process.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), whose state is signatory to the Tri-Party Agreement that governs Hanford cleanup, said at Beard’s confirmation hearing last week that work at the former plutonium production site is taking too long, and DOE’s contractors retaliate against employees who try to draw attention to dangerous or inefficient working conditions.
Wyden asked Beard to deliver within three days of the May 12 hearing a list of actions she would take to improve conditions at Hanford. Late Wednesday, four business days later, a Wyden spokesman said by email that DOE is “working on an answer” to the senator’s questions.
Nominees for certain high-level federal jobs must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and the DOE inspector general is one such post. The full Senate cannot vote on her nomination as DOE’s top internal watchdog until the chamber’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee recommends giving her the job.
Beard, a veteran agency attorney, was nominated in April. Her confirmation hearing happened only weeks after Hanford workers complained of possible exposure to hazardous vapors at the site — something that has happened there before. There are 56 million gallons of high-level chemical and radioactive waste from Cold War-era plutonium production in Hanford’s massive tank farm. There are also many caches of solid waste across the site.
