Kenneth Fletcher
NS&D Monitor
2/28/2014

The Department of Energy has made “significant progress” on commitments for improving work planning and control in response to concerns from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, DOE told the DNFSB this month. In August 201,2 the DNFSB sent a letter to DOE detailing issues with the implementation of work planning and control at the activity level, to which DOE responded in late 2012 with a detailed report on steps it planned to take. “The Department has made significant progress on each of our stated commitments by working together across DOE program and staff offices, as well as seeking inputs on WP&C best practices and lessons-learned from DOE contractor organizations and from the Board’s staff,” DOE Deputy Under Secretary for Management and Performance David Klaus wrote in a Feb. 14 letter to the Board.

In its August 2012 report, the DNFSB detailed eight accidents at DOE sites since 2006 where work planning deficiencies were a prominent factor, as well as 15 reviews done by Board staff since June 2008 identifying issues with work planning. After numerous recommendations over more than 15 years questioning those processes, the Board once again urged DOE to focus on that area. The Department’s official work planning procedures are desig-ned to follow Integrated Safety Management (ISM)  systems, an approach adopted by DOE in 1996 following a DNFSB recommendation. While the Board noted several steps undertaken by the Department and contractors to make improvements, it remained skeptical on the long-term effectiveness of those steps. The DNFSB called for a renewed focus on work planning and control, and as a first step suggested the development of requirements and guidance in the DOE directives system that would govern the “necessary elements of a strongly functioning work planning and control program.”

In its letter this month, DOE outlined the commitments it has completed. Those include “specifically the convening of the Special Integrated Safety Management (ISM) Champions Workshop on WP&C, and the issuance of the report, Analysis of Integrated Safety Management at the Activity Level: Work Planning and Control, have focused and communicated the Department’s attention on areas of weakness and on ways to improve WP&C implementation and oversight performance,” the letter states. But the Department said it was too early to measure the outcomes of efforts that are still underway. “For efforts that are in progress, specifically the development of new DOE directives and the revision of existing DOE directives, it is premature to assess the effectiveness of these commitments at this time,” the letter states. “However, the Department aims to use these directives to build a solid foundation to achieve effective WP&C program implementation and oversight. These directives are currently in the Department’s formal review and comment process.”