DNFSB Raps Lab for Conduct of Operations, Maintenance
NS&D Monitor
5/16/2014
Calling Sandia National Laboratories’ failure to comply with Department of Energy requirements at its Technical Area V nuclear facilities “troubling,” the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week called on lab officials and their federal overseers to strengthen conduct of operations and maintenance programs at the site. In a May 12 letter to National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz, DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur said a Board review of Sandia’s Technical Area V facilities revealed that technical procedures were sometimes deficient and that federal and contractor oversight was lacking, though the Board acknowledged there were no "imminent" safety concerns. “Significant SNL management attention is needed to upgrade conduct of operations governance documents, heighten the rigor and formality of operations and maintenance activities, develop nuclear facilities’ maintenance implementing documents, and improve oversight and assessments,” DNFSB staff said in an April 8 report accompanying Winokur’s letter. “Many of the deficiencies and opportunities for improvement noted were the type that would normally be identified during period and rigorous contractor self-assessments or SFO oversight activities.”
The DNFSB said that only a pair of external and internal conduct of operations assessments were conducted during Fiscal Year 2013 when DOE regulations call for a review of each of the 18 conduct of operations program elements every three years. No assessments were conducted on nuclear maintenance programs at Technical Area V during FY 2013, the DNFSB said. “The current periodicity and rigor of conduct of operations and maintenance assessments are not adequate to sufficiently validate the continued effectiveness of the programmatic elements,” DNFSB staff said in an April 8 report accompanying Winokur’s letter. “It would be advisable for DOE to evaluate the periodicity and rigor with which the contractor performs its conduct of operations and maintenance programs assessments and evaluate its own role in overseeing the programs.”
DNFSB: Procedures Impacted Safe Performance
The DNFSB said that some poorly written procedures had impacted the safe performance of work, using work conducted in the AHCF radiological confinement tent as an example. “During processing of material in the tent, the procedure did not allow for temporarily lifting a cask lid for a radiological swipe, installing jacking bolts to aid in removing the experiment assembly, putting the experiment assembly into a vice [sic] to assist in the disassembly, or attaching container tracking labels to inner containers,” the DNFSB said. “This resulted in the operators performing actions that were not proceduralized even though the proper response to procedures that cannot be executed as written is to stop work and notify management.”
In a statement, Sandia spokeswoman Heather Clark said Sandia was taking the DNFSB’s concerns seriously. “Sandia has been engaged with the board since the review in early February and has already begun to implement improvements based on the visit,” she said. “Sandia has been continuously improving its safety management programs and this report will be used to further this commitment to a safe workplace.”
