George Lobsenz’s article in yesterday’s issue of The Energy Daily correctly pointed out that the Department of Energy’s decision to provide the contractors who run the nuclear weapons labs with major relief from federal oversight was done “Without any prior public review or comment.”

DOE’s decision was made public after POGO released a March 16 memo from Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman. Lobsenz’s story also smartly references the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) analysis which concluded that DOE needs more independent federal oversight, not less.

POGO’s greatest concern about DOE’s decision is that it cuts the legs off the Department's Office of Health, Safety, and Security (HSS). In the memo, DOE leadership spells out to HSS, which is supposed to be an independent office, that its mission is now to streamline requirements for the Labs and that its not up to them to be responsible for safety and security.



HSS, through the security oversight inspections it conducts, has been the one entity within DOE to identify serious security problems and get them resolved. For example, POGO was assured that security was fine at a facility holding more than one ton of weapons-grade material at Los Alamos, but when the site failed several HSS-run performance tests, which use mock terrorists to determine the adequacy of the defense of our nuclear weapons labs, DOE and Congress then demanded the material be removed from the site. Similarly, in April 2008, HSS’s mock-terrorists tested the security at Livermore Lab, defeated the protective guard force, and succeeded in both stealing the simulated special nuclear material and using it to create an improvised nuclear device. After the failed security tests and more than a decade of delay, DOE is now in the final stages of removing the material from that Lab.

Frank Munger’s Atomic City Underground also covered the memo and pointed out that the reforms “will be implemented in a hurry.” This is another reason it is key that Congress get involved and demand that the oversight office at DOE be independent.

-- Peter Stockton and Ingrid Drake