Bliley Introduces Bill To Strengthen Safety At DOE

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Bliley Introduces Bill To Strengthen Safety At DOE

WASHINGTON, March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- House Commerce Committee 
Chairman U.S. Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA) along with Science Committee 
Chairman U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), and US Reps, Fred 
Upton (R-MI), Joe Barton (R-TX), Richard Burr (R-NC), and Ken Calvert 
(R-CA) late yesterday introduced a bill to establish external 
regulation of safety at all Department of Energy facilities.  Bliley 
today made the following statement:  

"I am introducing today, along with a number of my colleagues from 
the Commerce Committee and the Science Committee, legislation to 
improve the safety throughout the Department of Energy by 
establishing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the external 
regulator of all nuclear safety matters in the Department of Energy 
and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as the external 
regulator for all non-nuclear worker safety matters in the Department 
of Energy. 

"This legislation is long overdue.  The Department of Energy is the 
only major federal agency that is self-regulating with respect to 
safety matters. Such a self-regulating approach may have made sense 
at one time, when the national security mission of the Department and 
its predecessor agencies dominated over all other energy missions, 
and when there was only one Federal agency with knowledge of  the 
sole repository of knowledge  in the Federal government regarding 
nuclear safety.  However, the self-regulatory approach makes no sense 
today, when the largest single component of DOE's budget is spent on 
the clean up of past environmental contamination.  And it makes no 
sense when other agencies such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
possess sufficient technical knowledge and regulatory expertise to 
oversee the safety of Department of Energy facilities and operations. 

"The Department of Energy has an extensive legacy of safety problems. 
Some of the most egregious safety violations occurred years ago, such 
as the contamination of workers at the Portsmouth and Paducah gaseous 
diffusion plants.  Unfortunately, not all of these safety problems 
are in the distant past.  Less than two years ago, five workers at 
the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were contaminated with 
radioactivity during waste processing activities.  A radioactivity 
alarm which could have detected the problem and prevented exposure of 
the workers had been turned off.  The Department issued a notice of 
violation to Lawrence Livermore but, because this laboratory is 
operated by the University of California, it is exempt from paying 
any civil penalty for its safety violations.  Other serious safety 
violations continue to surface throughout the DOE complex, exposing 
both DOE employees and contractors and the general public to 
unacceptable risks. 

"The concept of external regulation of the Department of Energy is 
not a new idea.  It has been proposed by many before me, though it 
always encountered the resistance of the DOE.  That resistance began 
to change in the mid-1990s, when the Department of Energy chartered 
an advisory committee in 1995 to consider whether external regulation 
of DOE facilities and operations could improve protection of human 
health and safety and the environment.  This and subsequent efforts 
concluded that external regulation offered substantial safety 
benefits and should be pursued aggressively.  The Department 
initiated several pilot projects on external regulation, in 
cooperation with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the 
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. These pilot projects 
were conducted at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 
California, the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center at the 
Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, and the Receiving Basin 
for Offsite Fuel at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.  These 
pilot projects were successfully concluded last summer, and offered 
some useful lessons on how to make external regulation more 
effective.  Unfortunately, Secretary Richardson decided last year to 
abandon the idea of external regulation and continue to allow the 
Department to regulate itself.  This decision flies in the face of 
the positive results of the pilot projects, as well as the growing 
public sentiment that we can no longer trust the Department to 
regulate itself. 

"The enactment last year of the National Defense Authorization Act 
for Fiscal Year 2000 (Public Law 106-65) adds impetus to the argument 
for external regulation, because Title 32 of this law created the 
semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.  DOE's 
weapons laboratories, plants, and test sites have always posed the 
greatest safety risks because of the very nature of the materials 
manner that is protective of the health and safety of both the 
workers and the general public. 

"The legislation that I am introducing today would transfer DOE's 
authority for the regulation and enforcement of safety to the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission for all nuclear safety matters and to the 
Occupational Safety and Health Administration for all non-nuclear 
worker safety matters. The effective date for the assumption of 
external regulation responsibilities by the NRC and OSHA will be 
October 1, 2001. This timeframe will provide the involved agencies 
sufficient time to resolve all transition issues, and will permit the 
NRC and OSHA to request necessary resources in the next 
appropriations cycle.  To eliminate duplicative reviews, the existing 
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which functions in a purely 
advisory role, will be abolished and its staff resources made 
available to the NRC.  The NRC and OSHA are directed to enter into a 
memorandum of understanding by January 1, 2001, to delineate the 
exercise of their respective authorities at DOE facilities.  Lastly, 
the legislation requires the Department of Energy to submit to 
Congress by April 1, 2001, a plan for terminating the Department's 
regulatory and enforcement responsibilities in the areas transferred 
to the NRC and OSHA. 

"I commend my colleagues on the Commerce and Science Committees who 
join me in supporting this important legislation.  We cannot afford 
to have any more situations as occurred at the Portsmouth and Paducah 
plants. The time has come to reform how Department manages nuclear 
and worker safety throughout the entire complex, including the new 
National Nuclear Security Administration. The time has come to vest 
regulatory and enforcement authority for these vital safety matters 
in the agencies with the technical competence, the proven track 
record, and the independent perspective necessary to restore the 
confidence of the American people."  

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
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