Nuclear oversight agency chair steps down
The chairman of a federal agency responsible for safety at nuclear weapons facilities has stepped down amid turmoil over his management and his recommendation to President Trump that the agency be abolished.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board — chaired until last week by lawyer and marine engineer Sean Sullivan — is a tiny institution by federal standards but has played a key role in tightening safety practices at nuclear weapons research and production facilities in Hanford, Wash., and Los Alamos, N.M., among others.
With an annual budget of $31 million and a staff of more than 100, the organization is the only independent body responsible for overseeing work by the private companies that run the labs and factories making the most powerful weapons in the U.S. arsenal.
Sullivan has sparred regularly with board counterparts and repeatedly voted against sending specific safety warning notices to the Department of Energy, which finances work at the factories and labs. Last summer, he provoked an uproar by telling the White House in a letter that the five-member board should be eliminated and its staff dispersed or retired.
“Although the Board may have been helpful in providing for the adequate protection of public health and safety during its early years, that value today is provided only on the margins,” he wrote. He called the panel “a relic of the Cold-War era defense-establishment.”
The three Democrats on the board swiftly wrote dissenting letters, members of Congress raised concerns, and staff expressed opposition in meetings with Sullivan.
In a brief resignation letter to board personnel Jan. 19, Sullivan said he was leaving “to pursue other interests” but alluded to the internal turmoil. “Our fine staff deserves to be led by an executive the staff believes in,” Sullivan wrote. He did not return messages seeking comment.
The Trump administration has been silent on whether it will follow Sullivan’s advice to shut down the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board altogether. Multiple sources familiar with the budget process said work on funding the agency for fiscal year 2019 has progressed normally, indicating the Trump administration, at least for now, intends to keep the board going.