Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
5/1/2015
The Department of Energy issued late last week its implementation plan for last year’s Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recommendation calling for strengthened emergency preparedness and response capabilities. The DNFSB recommendation was prompted in part by DOE’s response to the 2014 truck fire and radioactive material release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, along with other emergency response concerns. “DOE is committed to achieving the end state of an effective and self-sustaining Emergency Management Enterprise, and more specifically, improving both its emergency preparedness and emergency response capabilities across all of the Department’s defense nuclear facilities,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in an April 24 letter submitting the plan. “The Implementation Plan provides the Department’s approach for addressing the performance concerns expressed by the Board in Recommendation 2014-1.” DOE will update the DNFSB every six months on the plan.
The DNFSB called for completing implementation of the plan within a year, and while DOE has called for some high-priority items to be in place in 2015, other tasks could stretch into late 2017 until they are done, according to the plan. “The methodology used to meet the specified DNFSB Sub-recommendations and component elements begins with a prioritization process that includes a specific time frame for resolution. High priority items will include senior leadership involvement and direction and will be accomplished in 2015,” the plan states.
The events at WIPP in February highlighted shortcomings in DOE’s emergency preparedness and response program, the DNFSB noted in its recommendation. It called on DOE to take a series of steps by 2016 to strengthen its emergency response capabilities, including creating a “robust” emergency response infrastructure at all of its defense nuclear facilities. It also called on DOE to ensure that sites have training and drill programs staffed with fully competent emergency response personnel, are conducting exercises that challenge existing capabilities, and are constantly identifying deficiencies, and preparing and evaluating corrective actions. The Board also said DOE’s emergency management directive should be updated to address a number of severe events.
DOE to Enforce Management Accountability
DOE’s implementation plan aims to address the three main causes of the emergency preparedness and response issues. The first involves DOE recognizing that “implementation of requirements has not been consistent.” The second involves inadequate revision to the requirements to address lessons learned. DOE plans to update its order to “include details on addressing information gathered following severe events, such as the lessons learned from the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant,” the plan states. For the third, DOE acknowledged a “lack of consistent oversight and enforcement of its existing preparedness.” DOE said that all three involved “limited management involvement in the DOE emergency management program. DOE will rectify this situation by enforcing line management chain of command and accountability for the implementation of and oversight of the Emergency Management Enterprise.”
