Our Mission and History

The mission of the Board shall be to provide independent analysis, advice, and recommendations to the Secretary of Energy to inform the Secretary:

• In the role of the Secretary as operator and regulator of the defense nuclear facilities of the Department of Energy;
   
• In providing adequate protection of public health and safety at such defense nuclear facilities, including with respect to the health and safety of employees and contractors at such facilities.

The Board is composed of five respected experts in the field of nuclear safety with demonstrated competence and knowledge relevant to its independent investigative and oversight functions. The Congress established the Board in September 1988 in response to growing concerns about the level of health and safety protection that DOE was providing the public and workers at defense nuclear facilities. In so doing, Congress sought to provide the general public with added assurance that DOE’s defense nuclear facilities are being safely designed, constructed, operated, and decommissioned.
 

This report was prepared by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. It is the first report of its kind, detailing the comprehensive history of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.

This study captures how the Board met the competing national security, health and safety, environmental, government, and public demands placed upon DOE's defense nuclear facilities, explicating the principles and techniques the Board employed to efficiently function as a federal agency and efficiently fulfill the Board's unique mandate under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. While it chronicles events, the study also serves as the tutorial for those charged with the future administration of the Board's enabling legislation, making available to the current and future leadership the philosophical and jurisprudential underpinnings of the form of governance captured in the Board's enabling legislation and the resolution of changing and sometimes opposing national requirements.