A Hanford contractor is trying to avoid a repeat of a July incident where overdue inspections for equipment resulted in a stop-work order at the site’s fire department, a federal safety board said.
Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, the site’s Leidos-led landlord contractor that oversees firefighting and other services at the shuttered DOE nuclear-weapons site, restored the Hanford Fire Department’s compliance with the National Fire Protection Association code, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in a staff report dated Aug. 25 and recently posted on the board’s website.
The fire protection code requires ladders, aerial devices, and pump apparatuses be inspected annually by a certified third party, the DNFSB said in a prior staff report dated Aug. 18.
The landlord contractor has in the past subcontracted this work, but a request for proposals, extended several times, failed to yield any valid bidders, the DNFSB said in the Aug. 18 document.
“In mid-July a concerned [Hanford Fire Department] worker issued a stop work on the equipment until the overdue inspections were complete,” according to DNFSB. The contractor “subsequently used an expedited process to allow a third-party subcontractor to schedule and perform the work.”
While the subcontractor inspections did not turn up any deficiencies, Hanford Mission Integration Solutions is doing a root cause analysis in hopes of avoiding a repeat of this problem in the future, according to DNFSB.
DNFSB also said that another Hanford contractor is fixing problems with clogged or degraded sprinklers in certain buildings.
Earlier this year, a root-cause analysis of degraded fire suppression systems around the Solids Waste Operations Complex indicated general service facilities managed by Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co. missed certain 5-year internal inspections for sprinkler systems.
Plans are underway to have sprinkler systems “inspected, flushed, and evaluated over the next 5 years,” according to DNFSB.
“The department and its contractors are committed to the safety of Hanford Site workers, the public and the environment,” a DOE spokesperson said via email Monday. “The department is continuing to oversee the inspection work to ensure fire suppression systems in site facilities continue to meet applicable safety standards.”
