The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is moving forward with an initiative known as “Project Velocity”, an ambitious effort to rewrite decades of internal rules governing the safety, construction, and oversight processes across the nuclear weapons complex. According to DOE officials, Project Velocity is an attempt to eliminate unnecessary “red tape” from slowing mission delivery. Unfortunately, this regulatory reform fails to take into account the impact that sacrificing protections for speed is likely to have on communities located in proximity to nuclear weapons facilities. At a time when the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is pursuing unprecedented expansion of plutonium pit production and nuclear warhead modernization, weakening oversight is likely to increase risks to workers, the environment, and communities surrounding sites such as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
At the Nuclear Deterrence Summit in January of this year, directors from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), LLNL, and Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) came together to describe a coordinated effort to capitalize on the current push for regulatory reform. LLNL Director Kimberly Budil and LANL Director Thom Mason argued that Project Velocity is “fundamentally different” from previous reform efforts given that it aims to transform long standing lab concerns into concrete revisions. Historically speaking, the directors alleged that regulations have typically come in response to particular incidents, making them difficult to remove even when adhering with said regulations is viewed as burdensome. Unlike earlier efforts that focused on “low hanging fruit” or that were written in response to accidents or other events, Project Velocity seeks to conduct a systematic review of approximately 80 DOE orders in order to determine which requirements should remain, and which should be revised or eliminated entirely. The lab directors expressed a desire to turn towards “risk-based oversight”, with greater reliance on commercial standards and even artificial intelligence-enabled analysis where hazards are believed to be sufficiently low.
The lab directors seem to insinuate that it is a bad thing that many existing DOE regulations were established in response to particular incidents. However, it is important to recognize that these “particular incidents” were often serious accidents, safety failures, security breaches, or other management problems that exposed weaknesses in the nuclear weapons complex, necessitating more oversight and stricter regulatory processes. To rid the system of these regulations in the name of efficiency completely ignores the safety and security shortcomings that led them to exist in the first place. Additionally, DOE has provided little to no information to the public regarding which specific orders are being reviewed, or what standards or regulations may ultimately be weakened or eliminated.
Nuclear weapons research, development, maintenance, production is dangerous work that involves countless novel processes and experiments, hundreds of toxic and radioactive substances, as is the hazardous and radioactive waste management conducted at the same facilities. For example, Tri-Valley CAREs has added up the publicly reported radiation releases from LLNL which total over 1 million curies of radiation. Most of this comes from large accidental releases of tritium (radioactive hydrogen gas). More than 3100 former employees have filed claims for illnesses they believe were caused by exposure to radiation and toxic chemicals on the job, and they are just a small portion of the more than 140,000 former nuclear workers around the country who have applied. DOE/NNSA facilities have gotten safer in recent decades because of the regulatory requirements developed in response to past incidents.
Project Velocity is part of a broader effort by DOE to reduce regulatory requirements across the nuclear weapons complex. An example of this is DOE’s recently proposed “Zero-Based Regulating” rule, which would place many DOE regulations on a schedule for automatic expiration unless the Department affirmatively reviews and renews them before a specified deadline. Tri-Valley CAREs made a public comment on this proposed rule change, summarized below:
Tri-Valley CAREs opposes DOE’s proposed “Zero-Based Regulating” rule and related direct final rule, and urges DOE to withdraw the direct final rule and not finalize the proposal in its current form. We are deeply concerned that the proposal would allow important regulations to automatically expire, including rules related to contractor whistleblower protections, nuclear security, classified information, worker reliability, radioactive waste, cleanup, and nuclear accident response. These protections should not disappear simply because DOE fails to complete a review by a deadline. At contractor-run sites like Lawrence Livermore, workers are often the first to identify unsafe conditions, fraud, waste, security weaknesses, or dangerous practices, and they must be able to report concerns without fear of retaliation. Regulations affecting nuclear facilities, workers, surrounding communities, and the environment should only be changed through a clear, rule-specific public process with meaningful public participation. Tri-Valley CAREs asks DOE to withdraw the direct final rule, not finalize the proposed rule as written, and exclude whistleblower protections, nuclear safety and security, worker protection, cleanup, radioactive waste, and nuclear accident response from any automatic sunset process. DOE can review outdated regulations without putting essential health, safety, security, and environmental protections at risk.
Overall, Project Velocity is one of many initiatives pushing for regulatory reform across the nuclear weapons complex. Strong oversight, independent safety review, environmental protections, and meaningful public participation are not unnecessary burdens as proponents of Project Velocity seem to allege, but rather, essential safeguards developed through decades of trial and error that keep communities, workers, and the environment protected from nuclear disaster.
As DOE moves forward with Project Velocity, Tri-Valley CAREs will continue to monitor these developments, advocating for greater transparency as well as for regulations regarding safety, environmental protection, and public engagement to take precedence over accelerated nuclear weapons modernization processes.