§6266 Notification of Nuclear Criticality and Non-nuclear Incidents

Summary

The Secretary of Energy or the Administrator must notify the listed congressional committees within 15 days after a nuclear criticality incident from a covered program that causes an injury, fatality, or a full or partial shutdown of a covered facility. The notice must say what happened and why, whether any part of the facility was shut down, how the incident affected the agency’s mission, and what corrective actions were taken. The Secretary must keep records of two kinds of incidents: criticality incidents that cause injury, death, or shutdown, and non-nuclear incidents at a covered facility that cause serious bodily injury or death. Contractors at covered facilities must cooperate quickly. “Appropriate congressional committees” means the congressional defense committees, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. “Covered facility” means a nuclear security enterprise facility or a facility doing defense environmental cleanup work. “Covered program” means programs of the Administration or the defense environmental cleanup programs of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.