Exchange Monitor, Oct. 17, 2025
Wayne Barber
While sad to see what is designed as a five-person panel of experts fall to a lone member, the departing acting chair of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) feels cautiously optimistic about its future during a time of government cutbacks.
During an interview Thursday with Exchange Monitor, DNFSB Acting Chair Thomas Summers said while the current Donald Trump White House has yet to nominate anyone to fill the vacancies he understands from administration sources that two individuals are being vetted.
Exchange Monitor plans to publish articles this week and next week from the interview.
Summers ends his five-year tenure on the safety watchdog Saturday Oct. 18. His tenure
started in August 2020 when he was confirmed to serve out the last two months of another member’s term. Summers also served his own full five-year term.
The departure of Summers, a career Air Force veteran who also worked with the Department of Energy’s National
Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA),will leave Patricia Lee, a former Savannah River National Laboratory executive,as the lone remaining member of the DNFSB panel.
Despite the lack of seated board members, a situation bemoaned in a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, Summers leaves feeling pretty good about the Trump White House’s commitment to the small agency.
“I have not directly talked to the president,” Summers said. “I have talked to several of his administration staff … [and]there are some strong indications that the administration supports the board.”
For starters, DNFSB is one of the rare agencies these days where the White House and the House of Representatives
both seek a budget increase for fiscal 2026. The current House-passed appropriations bill would increase the nuclear
safety board budget to $45 million, up from $42 million in fiscal 2025.
As a side note, DNFSB gets its funding in two-year cycles, reducing the impact of the ongoing shutdown, Summers said.The panel has enough funds to continue normal operations six-to-eight weeks from the start of the Oct. 1 shutdown. The period could be extended “if we sharpen our pencils,” Summers said.
As for fiscal 2026, the White House Office of Management and Budget has supported $45 million budget for DNFSB, or a roughly 7% increase. “In this environment … is pretty amazing,” Summers said.
Since taking office in January, the current administration has “strongly supported” DNFSB’s mission to provide DOE within
dependent safety analysis and recommendations in order to protect nuclear complex workers and the public, Summers
said.
“As we see across the government, people are being laid off and riffed.” Summers said, referring to reductions in force.But the nuclear safety board convinced the White House to not only support the existing workforce “but we need to be
plussed-up … we are hiring new [people].”
While some staff left DNFSB due to retirements or other reasons, the agency did not suffer mandatory layoffs, Summers
said. While DNFSB cooperated with the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE did not target DFNSB for big cost-cutting. The DNFSB headcount stood at 106 this week and the board is looking to fill a half-dozen or more vacancies.
DNFSB received about 300 applications for two resident inspector positions, Summers said. The board’s mission is to provide DOE with outside analysis and advice on safety at its nuclear defense facilities.
As for Summers, he is open to taking a job in the administration or possibly accepting a role in private industry where his
defense and safety background would be an asset.
“I want to serve,” Summers said. “I’m open to serve in the administration. If not [then] potentially serve somewhere else
within the enterprise,” he added, referencing the DOE and Department of Defense contractor community.
