DOE ISSUES IMPLEMENTATION PLAN FOR HANFORD FLAMMABLE GAS SAFETY

The Department of Energy has completed its implementation plan for improving flammable gas safety at the Hanford tank farms in response to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recommendation. In January DOE accepted DNFSB’s recommendation Hanford Tank Farms Flammable Gas Safety Strategy 2012-2, which was issued last fall. It calls on DOE to move forward with upgrades to the ventilation systems at Hanford’s double-shell tank farms, citing the need to reduce the risk of significant safety consequences resulting from a flammable gas accident. In a June 6 letter to the DNFSB, DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz noted that in February, “DOE implemented a revision to the Documented Safety Analysis by adding a new control that measures ventilation flow through each tank on a periodic basis, supplementing the existing flammable gas monitoring control.”

The DNFSB empasized in its recommendation the need to install real time monitoring to measure tank ventilation flowrates. Moniz said in last week’s response, “DOE is currently working towards installation of safety-significant (SS) instrumentation for real-time monitoring of the ventilation exhaust flow from each double-shell tank (DST). DOE will ensure that DST primary ventilation systems are SS to support mixer pump operations to supply waste to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant.”