nuclear-news

 The chairman of a federal oversight agency responsible for safety at nuclear weapons facilities has stepped down amid turmoil over both his management and his recommendation to President Trump that the agency be abolished.

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board — chaired until this week by lawyer and marine engineer Sean Sullivan – is a tiny institution by federal standards, but has played a key role in tightening safety practices at nuclear weapons research and production facilities in Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico, among others.

With an annual budget of $31 million and a staff that numbers about 110 – including 10 technical experts who inspect labs and factories nationwide – the organization is the only independent body responsible for overseeing work by the private companies that run the labs and factories making the most powerful weapons in the U.S. arsenal…………https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/02/08/chairman-nuclear-weapons-oversight-agency-steps-down-amid-internal-turmoil/316613002/