The nuclear safety systems at Department of Energy (DOE) sites that are meant to protect workers, the public, and the environment from hazards created in case of an accident are generally functioning well, the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) said in a report released last week.
The office reviewed independent safety systems at 11 DOE nuclear facilities between 2013 and 2015, including their maintenance, surveillance testing, operations, and oversight. These sites included the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Nevada Nuclear Security Site, the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories, the Hanford Site in Washington state, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. The report found that the safety system at each of the facilities reviewed met requirements to perform their intended functions, and that contractors at the sites were properly managing those systems.
Areas of weakness included procedure use and adherence, the review said, as “procedures were not always performed as written or not up-to-date.” This included instances in which preventive maintenance was not performed as intended by the work package, and instead “workers performed the maintenance in the manner they thought to be correct.” Additionally, it said most of the facilities did not ensure that nuclear facility operators received information on changes in site systems, such as electrical distribution, that could impact the nuclear safety technology. EA recommendedDOE consider revising some of its directives on conduct of operations and facility safety for greater clarity on implementation of activities related to these systems.
