Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
7/10/2015
The National Nuclear Security Administration has not decided on a path forward for the third phase of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility Reinvestment Project—referred to as TA-55—after a decision was expected by July 5. “The NNSA continues to evaluate options for the TA-55 Reinvestment Project Phase III (TRP III); no decision has been made regarding the proposed scope….The NNSA remains focused on the safety of our nuclear facilities and the public,” NNSA spokesperson Shelley Laver wrote in a July 6 email to NS&D Monitor. According to a recently released Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site representative report, dated June 5, LANL management had considered the fire alarm replacement along with upgrading the active confinement ventilation system to safety class and separating non-seismically qualified structures from the safety class fire water supply loop. On May 28, LANL ultimately recommended to NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs Don Cook pursuing only a fire alarm system replacement for the reinvestment project. The June 5-dated DNFSB site rep report noted: “NNSA management is expected to make a decision within the next month.”
LANL recommended pursuing only the fire alarm system replacement because of “increased cost estimates,” completion of structural modifications, implementation of operational practices to reduce risk in recent years, and “the potential to transfer programmatic activities to future modular additions,” the DNFSB report states. In its briefing to Cook, LANL noted that “repair/update of the ventilation system will be required independent of the active confinement decision,” the report states.
PF-4 Readiness Assessment Team Visits Los Alamos in Advance of Planned Assessment
Members of the federal readiness assessment (RA) team for the Balance of Machining activity for the phased restart of Plutonium Facility (PF-4) operations conducted their pre-visit at Los Alamos in mid-June, according to a recently released June 12-dated site rep report. The team planned to commence its full review on June 22, but LANL did not respond to an NS&D Monitor request for confirmation that the team had started its review. On June 8, the contractor RA team commenced its review of the Isotope Fuels Impact Tester, according to the report. On June 5, LANL submitted its request for startup approval and the associated corrective action plan for closure of the findings from the federal RA for Activity 1 of the PF-4 restart—the T Base 2 machining activity, according to the report.
LANL hopes to accelerate the start of the contractor readiness assessment for PF-4 to late July, as part of its effort to restart operations at the facility, according to an earlier DNFSB site rep report. Dated May 29, that report states the baseline schedule “shows a request for restart authorization” by Jan. 5, 2016. The report indicates that LANL personnel started a management self-assessment in mid-May. “Facility personnel continued the second week of the management self-assessment for Pit Flowsheet operations,” the report states. “These operations include the various welding, assembly, and inspection activities needed to produce a pit for the stockpile.” Contractor Los Alamos National Security (LANS) manages LANL. PF-4 operations were halted in June 2013, because of criticality safety and conduct of operations issues.
