DOE regulation

[Paul Lavely <lavelyp@uclink4.berkeley.edu>]

A few days ago I made some commnets about the DOE and regulation by the NRC. The question I was responding to was related to DOE dedication to safety. I offer the following edited remarks:

Remarks by Secretary of Energy Federico Peņa, at the Swearing-in Ceremony for Presidential Appointees of the Department of Energy Washington, DC  March 16, 1998


The third principle we must strive for is to instill confidence in the American people, the Congress, and our stakeholders by our ability to fulfill our commitments. We all know that there have been occasions in the past that may have caused people to lose faith in the Department. We need to gain back that trust by keeping our promises. 

And we are making progress. For example, one of the first decisions I made as Secretary was to terminate the contract of the company managing our Brookhaven National Laboratory because I believed that the contractor had begun to put science before safety. We then selected a new contractor in record time, with full input from the local community. And we are beginning to win back trust at Brookhaven. We need to win back trust anywhere that we may have lost it. I want our stakeholders, I want Congress, and I want the American people to have confidence in the Department of Energy -- to know that we will keep our word.

And the fourth principle the team must work on -- the way to gain back that confidence I just spoke of -- is to improve our productivity. We must be more timely, efficient, and effective in accomplishing our affirmative agenda and vital missions. We must be accountable for every dollar we invest, because every dollar we invest is a taxpayer's dollar. We are investing in the future, but we need to be more timely, efficient, and effective now.

The final principle for the team is to assure safety, openness, and honesty in our daily actions. We must support open communications and stand by our commitment to excellence in the protection of the worker, the public, and the environment. There is no line item in our budget for safety. There is no line item for openness, or honesty. But safety, openness, and honesty must be a part of all of our work. Safety, openness and honesty are everyone's job.


Does this adequately address the DOE stated commitment and respond to the question raised?

Paul Lavely 
UC Berkeley
lavelyp@uclink4.berkeley.edu 


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