Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
4/25/2014
The Department of Energy’s directives revision process is “too cumbersome” and creates confusion, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Peter Winokur said in a letter earlier this month to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. In his April 4 letter, which was recently made public, Winokur urged Moniz to review the directives revision and updating process to “eliminate barriers to the timely correction of identified problems and to eliminate any misalignment between practice and written guidance.” Winokur noted that a revision to the DOE standard for preparing documented safety analyses was two years past former Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s commitment to revise the standard by March 31, 2012. “A cumbersome and untimely approach to document revision delays correction of identified problems,” Winokur said in the letter. “Further, delay fosters confusion when operational practice diverges from outdated written guidance.”
Winokur also noted that nuclear explosives safety study terms like “pre-start” and “post-start” don’t make sense for operations that have already begun, which the National Nuclear Security Administration has tried to correct by issuing a “process deviation” directing the use of different names for ongoing operations. A second “process deviation” is in the works, he noted. “Process deviations, however, create an inconsistency between practice and the as yet unrevised DOE directives governing nuclear explosive safety. Rather than issuing process deviations, it would be more prudent to expeditiously revise the directives such that practice and written guidance are fully aligned,” he wrote. Winokur requested a briefing from DOE within 90 days of the letter on efforts to improve “DOE directives and technical standards of interest to the Board.”