The contractor that manages the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina performed well during its emergency response drills earlier this year, but needs to improve its response in several areas, according to a new agency report.
In a detailed assessment of the SRS Emergency Management Exercise Program, DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) could have done a better job of implementing its action plans during the drills. In addition, the exercises were usually restricted to one facility or area of the site near Aiken, S.C. That limits the ability to address emergencies that could impact multiple areas of the 310-square-mile complex, the report says.
From April through June of this year, personnel from the DOE office assessed the Savannah River Site’s emergency response efforts, including how officials reacted to simulated harmful gas releases, spills, earthquakes, and other incidents.
As part of its management contract, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions’ emergency response responsibilities include; ensuring readiness to deploy resources; managing an actual emergency; notifying the proper emergency responders, such as the SRS Fire Department, which is managed by SRNS; keeping workers safe during these events; and resuming normal operations following an incident. The contractor’s performance was evaluated as it conducted these operations during the emergency drills and exercises.
Overall, the DOE office concluded Savannah River Nuclear Solutions performed well during the exercises, and stuck to the criteria outlined in the emergency response action plan. “The SRS Emergency Plan adequately describes exercise requirements, scenario development, and offsite coordination,” according to the assessment, released this month.
However, the 28-page report does highlight several issues with the way in which personnel in different areas of the site handled their duties during the drills. For example, concerns were noted for how the incident command post – a chosen area on site that serves as a home base during incidents – handled tritium releases during the emergency response drills. The site uses multiple facilities to produce tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons.
During the exercises, personnel at these facilities properly set up command posts once the simulated release occurred. However, they failed to “adequately consider the potential dose from the tritium release and monitor the safety of the SRS (Fire Department) and facility responders,” the report says. Also, workers took more than hour longer than expected to begin monitoring the tritium release, officials wrote. The expected time frame was not included in the assessment.
The report also highlights issues with the performance of the Savannah River operations center, a fixed facility to which emergency response requests are first sent. The center properly dispatched emergency teams to the areas where the drills were taking place, by providing safe routes to access those areas. The center also provided guidance as the crews handled simulated tritium releases and nitric acid spills. However, it took too long during the drills to notify DOE headquarters of these incidents and staffers did not include enough details in their notifications, according to the assessment. For example, during an earthquake drill, the initial notification did not mention the incident was an earthquake.
Other areas of concern outlined in the assessment include:
– Personnel in charge did not address all possible consequences of an earthquake before advising workers to remain inside during the earthquake exercise. That could result in a higher risk of injury.
– Operators at H Canyon, the site’s nuclear materials processing facility, did not evaluate the consequences of tritium releases to workers and did not communicate the releases to the response teams.
– Automated communications equipment used to relay information about emergency responses lack interoperability, which is the ability for emergency systems to work together and relay information to more facilities in a timely manner.
The DOE Enterprise Assessments office offered several recommendations to SRNS, including updating its communication equipment and revising safety checklists at the tritium facilities so workers have a better understanding of what to do when a situation emerges. The agency added that SRNS management should revisit lessons learned from previous assessments, emphasize the need to complete tasks in a timely manner, and work better on communicating with staffers.
In a prepared statement, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions said it “always welcomes opportunities for feedback in order to continuously improve the program.” It did not address specific concerns highlighted in the assessment, including whether the contractor has implemented the recommendations from the DOE office.
