Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
5/2/2014
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has asked contractors and site field offices across the complex to perform a review of deferred maintenance in response to the recent incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant that have shut down operations there. “One of the early lessons learned from the recent Waste Isolation Pilot Plant events is that we must not accept, tolerate or otherwise justify out of service safety-related equipment,” states an April 16 memo from DOE cleanup chief Dave Huizenga. “Therefore, I am directing that each site in the EM complex complete and report to me, within 60 days, an initial extent of condition review assessing whether the site has applied sufficient resources to system and equipment maintenance, maintaining up to date configuration control, and making necessary upgrades to support system infrastructure.”
The move comes after a WC Monitor editorial in March called for an immediate review of deferred maintenance needed across the DOE complex after the Feb. 5 salt truck fire at WIPP and Feb. 14 radiation release. DOE accident investigation board reports have found that a host of maintenance issues at WIPP contributed to both the fire and the radiation release. WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership did not prioritize maintenance “unless there is an immediate impact on the waste emplacement process,” according to the DOE report on the release last week. Subsequently, the report found that “DOE HQ Office of Environmental Management needs to coordinate an extent of condition review at other EM sites and take action based on the outcome of that review.”
In the recent direction to site offices and cleanup contractors, Huizenga outlined what the review should cover. “The review should consider and assess corrective and preventative maintenance backlogs, the nature and age of operator work-arounds and operator compensatory actions, and other factors associated with safety-related systems,” the memo states. It adds: “The review should also assess the cumulative impact of the combination of degraded equipment on overall facility operational readiness.”
