Departmental Representative to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
About Board Recommendations
The Board's enabling legislation establishes that "the Board shall make such recommendations to the Secretary of Energy with respect to Department of Energy defense nuclear facilities, including operations of such facilities, standards, and research needs, as the Board determines are necessary to ensure adequate protection of public health and safety. In making its recommendations the Board shall consider the technical and economic feasibility of implementing the recommended measures."
Once the Board makes a Draft recommendation, the Secretary may respond with comments to the Draft recommendation within 30 days of receipt by DOE or, if additional time is granted by the DNFSB, within the time permitted by the DNFSB. Once the Board issues a Final recommendation, the Secretary must respond within 45 days of its publication in the Federal Register. The Secretary may accept or reject the Board's recommendation in whole or in part. Further, the Secretary must submit an implementation plan to the Board for each accepted recommendation within 90 days of the date the Secretary's acceptance of the recommendation is published in the Federal Register. The Department's processes for evaluating recommendations and developing implementation plans are discussed in the Desk Reference.
Department implementation plans contain defined actions or commitments necessary to resolve the identified technical and management issues. The Department provides evidence of completion of these commitments to the Board for their review. The Department's annual reports to Congress provide updates and status of implementation plan actions for all open Board recommendations.
