DOE Warns Plant on Nuclear Safety Issues
NS&D Monitor
4/25/2014
A series of recent nuclear safety issues at the Pantex Plant are drawing concern from the Department of Energy’s Office of Health, Safety and Security. The HSS Office of Enforcement and Oversight recently issued an enforcement letter to contractor B&W Pantex, and while HSS declined to fine the contractor, it urged B&W Pantex to review its training procedures, administrative control measures, material handling systems and quality assurance processes. According to HSS Office of Enforcement and Oversight Director John Boulden, the letter was sent to “convey concerns about the level of rigor applied by B&W Pantex in safely executing work and in accordance with DOE worker safety and health requirements and conduct of operations principles for highly hazardous materials. B&W Pantex should examine the broader issues identified in this letter and determine whether additional corrective actions may be warranted.”
The letter identified six nuclear safety events of concern at Pantex over the last two years, including Class 1.1D explosive materials that were incorrectly stored, special nuclear material containers that were mislabeled, and an explosive part that was found in a “location and condition that was not suitable for handling explosives.” There were also incidents involving a software failure that should have prevented the movement of special nuclear materials and high explosives at the same time, misidentified non-explosive containers that were found to actually contain explosives, and mislabeled explosive materials. “Collectively, the events indicate potential problems with the quality of training, operating procedures, material management practices, and verification methods, as well as evidence of issues in human performance,” Boulden wrote in the April 17 letter. B&W Pantex declined to comment.
