With the start of construction on the Uranium Processing Facility looming, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is raising concerns about some of the safety features designed for the facility. In an April 2 letter to National Nuclear Security Administration chief Tom D’Agostino, DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur revealed that the agency earlier this year had rejected contractor B&W Y-12’s Preliminary Safety Design Report and said the Board had determined that safety was “not adequately integrated into the design” of the facility. “Given the hazards present in the UPF, the Board has determined that the safety controls and their associated safety functions and functional requirements will not provide adequate protection for site workers and the public,” the Board said in a report accompanying Winokur’s letter. The Board requested a report and a briefing in response to its concerns within 30 days.
Much of the Board’s concern stems from seismic-related safety design issues and several systems, structures and components that were downgraded since the Board reviewed the facility’s Safety Design Strategy in 2007, and for which there was not adequate justification. The Board said that the facility’s confinement ventilation system was downgraded from Seismic Design Category (SDC) 2 to SDC-1, its criticality prevention controls were downgraded from SDC-3 to SDC-2, and its Criticality Accident Alarm System went from SDC-3 to SDC-1. The Board also said that the PSDR did not adequately analyze all hazards properly, including hazards within the Saltless Direct Oxide Reduction process, those dealing with small fires, worst-case fire scenarios, and that project officials were not conservative enough in planning for criticality accidents.
NNSA spokesman Josh McConaha noted that the design of the UPF has not been completed and that the agency was still taking “all ideas and suggestions into account so that we’re building a safe facility.” He said that many of the issues raised by the DNFSB had already been addressed and were reflected in a revised Safety Design strategy that is pending approval. “This Safety Design Strategy documents upgrades to the UPF design to improve safety systems, such as confinement ventilation and fire barriers,” McConaha said. “Safety is a priority to this project and we will ensure that the UPF will be built with the full set of safety controls and features necessary to protect workers and the public.”
