Appropriators ask DOE to restore canceled safety reporting orders as nuclear safety board reports access denials

LOS ALAMOS - The ranking Democrats on the House and Senate energy and water appropriations subcommittees have asked the Department of Energy to immediately reinstate three canceled orders on safety reporting and worker dissent, according to their Sept. 16 letter to Energy Secretary Christopher Wright.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur and Sen. Patty Murray wrote that DOE's "Project Velocity" revised 46 directives and canceled four on Aug. 13, including orders on environment, safety and health reporting, occurrence reporting, and differing professional opinions on technical safety concerns. They asked for 20 categories of records within 30 days.

A Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board presentation in the Legislature's Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee handouts says the board has one member and four vacancies, the first time in its 36-year history, and cannot issue formal recommendations without a quorum. It says the National Nuclear Security Administration has not given the board reports on a 120-day study of plutonium pit production, listing it among access problems at Los Alamos and Savannah River.

A separate DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments review of Los Alamos National Laboratory's PF-4 plutonium facility, published in May, reported four findings, including non-conservative accident analysis assumptions.