The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) engineering program at the Y-12 National Security Complex is sound and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is adequately operating the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC), the Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) said in separate assessments released Tuesday.
Bechtel National is building the UPF at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. The facility, which will cost up to $6.5 billion to complete by 2025, will host enriched uranium operations in support of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
EA said the UPF engineering program is sound and oversight efforts comprehensive overall, identifying two areas of Bechtel’s work that exemplified best practices. One case involved the development of a consolidated summary of safety basis requirements for different systems and structures; the other was the creation of a technical issues management system that boosts management involvement in resolving technical issues.
The DOE office also found some weaknesses, including calculation errors and invalid conclusions in engineering design deliverables that resulted from inattention to detail, and some ineffective corrective actions for engineering issues documented in the Issues Management System.
In the case of calculation errors, “BNI engineering personnel were receptive to the feedback provided, and revision of several affected documents began before EA left the site,” the assessment said.
The second EA assessment noted that LANL operates the NCERC at the Nevada National Security Site under an agreement with site contractor National Security Technologies. The NCERC facility is used for experiments on critical assemblies with fissile material at or near criticality, it said. The facility supports nuclear criticality safety research and training, nuclear emergency response, and nonproliferation activities, according to a site fact sheet.
The Office of Enterprise Assessments found that LANL is conducting NCERC operations safely, with highly experienced operators and adequate self-assessment and corrective action programs. It noted some deficiencies in “applying DOE requirements for conducting operator continuing training and for performing triennial operator training program assessments.”
Specifically, the NCERC on-the-job training checklist does not reflect DOE requirements for normal and abnormal operating procedures training, while the facility’s Training Program Plan does not adequately reflect DOE requirements for triennial assessments of the facility operator training and qualification program, EA said. Even so, “NCERC certified operators are highly knowledgeable of the critical assemblies and displayed good formality of operations attributes during observed operations,” the assessment concluded.
Neither EA assessment identified any findings.
