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U.S. Weapons Complex Safety Board at Risk
December 2025
By Lipi Shetty
The U.S. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) will continue its work at limited capacity despite the loss of a quorum earlier this year after a board member stepped down. The essential ongoing evaluations on the board’s agenda include safety considerations at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s PF-4 Plutonium Facility, which was the focus of an Oct. 10 board report to the Department of Energy (DOE).
Since January, the five-person board had been reduced to two members: acting Chairman Thomas Summers and Patricia Lee. Summers’ second term as vice chairman and as acting chairman concluded Oct. 18, leaving Lee as acting chairman and the only remaining member of the board.
In an Oct. 17 letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, the board stated that it “assure[s] you that the Board’s dedicated staff will continue to execute the safety oversight mission as required by the Atomic Energy Act” despite loss of the quorum.
The letter also notes that Summers has delegated certain authorities to board staff, including the authority to issue reporting requirements.
“Past board recommendations have resulted in saving millions of dollars by preventing accidents and providing a basis to modify or not build facilities,” said the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability in a Sept. 11 letter. “Maintaining a Board quorum preserves the DNFSB’s ability to issue formal recommendations, impose reporting requirements, and conduct hearings, thus ensuring that DOE avoids accidents and remains accountable,” the coalition of nonprofit advocates said in the letter.
Nominees to the board must be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The board has sent a list of potential nominees to the White House.
In one of its last acts before losing a quorum, the board published Oct. 10 its review of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s safety analysis of the Los Alamos Plutonium Facility. The report concluded that the energy department is prioritizing capability upgrades to its plutonium facility over infrastructure safety concerns.
“DOE and [Los Alamos National Laboratories] should consider prioritizing safety-related infrastructure projects to ensure that the Plutonium Facility safety strategy adequately protects the public, as the facility takes on new and expansive national security missions,” the report said.
The report determined that several safety considerations at the facility “depend on assumptions that cannot be technically verified and are sometimes non-conservative.” Among infrastructure projects that have been delayed are glovebox system improvements and fire prevention systems for mitigating risks associated with seismic activities.
The board has “long advocated for the use of safety-related active confinement systems in nuclear facilities for the purposes of confining radioactive materials.” The Energy Department favors passive confinement systems, which may allow unfiltered air with radioactive material to be released following an accident.
The PF-4 plutonium facility is currently undergoing upgrades to meet the congressionally mandated production target of 30 plutonium pits per year by 2030. A first production unit of a plutonium pit for the W87-1 warhead was completed in October 2024.