Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
7/24/2015
The Pantex Plant has implemented a new Nuclear Explosive Engineering Procedure and has resumed nuclear-explosive disassembly after an unexpected issue during a lifting operation forced workers to halt dismantlement activities on June 17, Pantex spokesman George Rangel confirmed to NS&D Monitor on Wednesday. A recently released Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site representative report dated June 19 noted that an unidentified “unexpected condition” happened during a “lifting operation with a vacuum fixture” at the Amarillo, Texas, plant. The standard Nuclear Explosive Operating Procedure (NEOP) did not outline responses for that unique situation, so Pantex managing contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security prepared a NEOP to address the encountered situation and possible future similar instances, the DNFSB report states. No one was hurt during the lifting operation, Pantex spokesman Steve Myers told NS&D Monitor yesterday.
Following the pause, Pantex’s acting DNFSB site representative observed CNS workers deliberate; after personnel decided how to handle the unit, the rep observed production technicians place the unit in a safe and stable condition, according to the report. “A Nuclear Explosive Engineering Procedure was developed and implemented to address the challenge, and operations safely resumed shortly thereafter,” Rangel wrote in an email to NS&D Monitor.
Halt Follows ‘Code Blue’
The resumption of disassembly was the second time in two months that Pantex rectified an unanticipated safety issue that arose during operations at the plant. CNS restarted refurbishment operations on B61 and W80 components in early June after an electrostatic discharge hazard scenario prompted a “code blue” on May 5 that sidelined work on those warhead programs. “Code blue” declarations result from a situation’s impact on National Nuclear Security Administration scheduled deliverables, yet agency spokeswoman Shelley Laver told NS&D Monitor last month that NNSA still expects to deliver the B61 and W80 programs on schedule. NNSA and the Air Force on July 1 successfully flight-tested the bomb at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada.
Rangel told NS&D Monitor that Pantex provides “several layers” of safety, quality assurance, and security for conditions such as the “code blue.” “In this instance, the work process for the B61 and W80 components was modified and a safety analysis was completed and validated,” Rangel wrote in an email. “As such, work on the weapons programs at Pantex have safely resumed. As in this case, when a potential challenge is encountered, we pause until fully confident our work processes and procedures appropriately address the issue before safely resuming operations.” No one was hurt during the “code blue.”
