Over a year’s time, it is common for Department of Energy weapons complex sites to experience multiple fires that are recorded with the agency’s Occurrence Reporting and Processing System, according to a report from the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments.
“The number of reportable fires per year [over a seven-year-period] ranged from 4 to 10, with an average of 7,” the DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said in a report released this month.
The office carried out 15 fire protection assessments between August 2015 and July 2022 at a total of 11 sites run by the Office of Environmental Management, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Office of Science.
Most of the fires were “considered small” but a couple were dubbed “moderately significant,” in the report. Of the two in the latter category, one was a roof fire during a subcontractor reroofing project, and the other was “a site transformer fire that affected underground hoists and evacuation capability at another site.”
Ten of the 11 assessed sites “demonstrated generally adequate fire protection programs,” the assessment office report said.
The report said DOE field managers should ensure that safety basis review teams are staffed with fire protection engineers. Such engineers study fire causes and how building design can minimize chances of a blaze. The report also stressed training, record-keeping, proper equipment maintenance and communication with contractors and subs.
“With the current large departure of experienced workers due to retirement, the importance of effective training and qualification of the new workforce involved in operating and maintaining nuclear facility safety systems is amplified,” according to the report.
The assessment office also warned that incomplete records and inadequate procedures collectively could be harbingers of more significant fire prevention problems in the future.
The report also lists several examples of best practices.
At the Hanford Site in Washington state, the prime contractors and DOE set up fire protection forums for “routine, open discussions on fire protection topics,” according to the report. Also a former contractor at the Nevada National Security Site had the fire department set up a fully equipped shop with technicians “to perform all maintenance, refurbishment, and hydrostatic testing on portable fire extinguishers.”
