The Department of Energy is committed to safe operation of its nuclear facilities and activities. To ensure safe operation, the Office of Health, Safety and Security's Office of Nuclear Safety and Environment establishes nuclear safety and environmental protection requirements and expectations for the Department to ensure protection of workers and the public from the hazards associated with nuclear operations, and protection of the environment from the hazards associated with all Department through a combination of public rules and DOE directives.

We also work with non-government standards bodies to develop consensus standards that can be used to maintain and enhance the safety of our facilities and activities.

The overall goal in nuclear safety enforcement is to improve nuclear safety performance throughout the Department’s programs, sites and contractors.  The Office of Price-Anderson Enforcement provides DOE corporate leadership for nuclear safety rule enforcement of the provisions of the Price-Anderson Amendments Act and execution of the enforcement program.  This responsibility incorporates the congressional statutory mandate to apply sanctions for unsafe conditions that violate nuclear safety requirements for protecting workers and the public. 

Additional statutory responsibilities include enforcement of the Worker Safety and Health Program in the same manner that the nuclear safety rules are enforced.  One of the desired outcomes of this program is to promote pro-active behavior on the part of contractors with the goal, as stated above, of improving nuclear safety performance.