Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
5/22/2015
Contractors at the Savannah River Site are making progress in reducing significant corrective maintenance backlogs that have raised concerns in recent years. M&O contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions reached a 40 percent reduction in its corrective maintenance backlog over the last year, while liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation reduced its backlog by 22 percent between April 2014 and February, the contractors said this week. Both contractors took a variety of efforts to address the concerns in the last year. The February 2014 events at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which were linked in part to deferred maintenance, resulted in an increased emphasis on maintenance issues across the DOE complex.
Some of the reductions at Savannah River are related to the fact that the corrective maintenance backlogs spiked at some facilities after a January 2014 freeze resulted in damage, and the fact that “contractors scrubbed their backlogs to eliminate duplicative or moot work orders,” according to a March 13 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board staff report. “But much of the reduction reflects a concerted effort to work off the backlogs and hire additional workers (e.g., SRNS hired 69 maintenance workers). That being said, there were still a dozen occurrence reports involving degraded safety equipment in the last four months and equipment failures have repeatedly impacted operations recently,” the report states.
SRNS Used ‘Focused Efforts’
SRNS addressed its backlog through “focused efforts,” including “commitment of additional resources, the use of rolling blocked outages for facilities, and a thorough analysis of the backlog to identify and reduce redundancy,” spokeswoman Barbara Smoak said in a written response. “Reduction of the corrective maintenance backlog remains a priority and will continue to be addressed to ensure operational certainty and the safe and secure execution of our missions.”
SRR Implemented Efficiency Reviews
SRR reduced its backlog from 89,839 hours to 70,005 hours over the 11-month period. “The decrease was the direct result of implementing actions identified during a series of internal, process efficiency focused reviews,” according to SRR spokesman Dean Campbell. “The actions increased worker ‘wrench’ time to perform more CM work, as well as a hiring a small number of additional employees to work on the CM backlog.”
Layoffs, furloughs and funding cuts at the site in recent years have added to the backlog, which has been highlighted by DNFSB staff in reports released in March and June 2013 and an additional report from June 2014. The contractors have made strides since last year, when SRNS President Carol Johnson said this month she is “worried” about a lack of progress in addressing the maintenance backlog, but noted that SRNS does have a maintenance improvement plan and is also recruiting new people to work in the area.
