The Department of Energy is asking to close out a 2002 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recommendation regarding administrative controls put in place in the case of potential accidents. DOE has now completed all actions in its implementation plan developed in response to the Board’s concerns, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz wrote in a letter to the DNFSB released Friday. The Board’s original recommendation raised issues with the “lack of rigor and quality assurance for some discrete operator actions or administrative controls,” according to the recent DOE report.
While in 2007 DOE first updated guidance for specific administrative controls (SACs) and strengthened its processes, that year the Board said the Department would still need to take additional steps. “In response to the DNFSB letter, the Department performed a series of line management and independent oversight reviews to verify proper SAC implementation,” Moniz wrote. “The results of these reviews have confirmed that SACs have been appropriately implemented in the field and that processes are in place to continue oversight of their proper implementation.”
