§2736 Notification of Nuclear Criticality and Non-nuclear Incidents

Summary

The Secretary of Energy or the Administrator must tell certain congressional committees about any nuclear criticality incident from a covered program that causes injury or death, or that shuts down all or part of a covered facility. The notice must be sent no later than 15 days after the incident. Each notice must explain what happened and why, say whether the facility or part of it was shut down, describe any effect on the mission of the Administration or the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, and list any corrective actions taken. The Secretary must keep a record of two kinds of incidents: nuclear criticality incidents that cause injury, death, or shutdown, and non‑nuclear incidents that cause serious bodily injury or death. Management and operating 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 facility of the nuclear security enterprise or a facility doing defense environmental cleanup for the Office of Environmental Management. “Covered program” means programs of the Administration and the defense environmental cleanup programs of the Office of Environmental Management.