STATUS OF DOE INVESTIGATION INTO WTP DESIGN CONCERNS UNCLEAR

The DOE investigation, launched in the fall of 2011 at the request of an employee at the Office of River Protection, examined several instances where the safety bases of the WTP facilities may not have been fully aligned with the facility design. Last November, DOE presented Bechtel National with the preliminary findings of the investigation, saying that “a significant number of potential noncompliances” with DOE’s quality assurance and safety basis requirements were identified in Bechtel National’s efforts at the Hanford vit plant, according to a copy obtained by WC Monitor. The preliminary report said, “ “The potential noncompliances include: (1) failure to provide sufficient resources for the work; (2) failure to train personnel to perform the assigned work; (3) failure to identify, control and correct items and processes that do not meet established requirements; (4) procedural inadequacies and failure to follow procedures; (5) failure to conduct management and independent assessments; and (6) failure to establish and maintain the safety basis of facilities,” the report says. The report also said, “The Office of Enforcement and Oversight considers the issues discussed in this report to be collectively of high safety significance and believes that, if uncorrected, these issues will reduce assurance of safe operations and/or lead to further delay in WTP commissioning.”

 

One apparent factor in the length of time it is taking DOE to complete the investigation appears to be questions over whether DOE requirements for contractors to adequately maintain safety basis documents for facilities apply to preliminary documented safety analyses (DSAs). In April, DOE Chief Health, Safety and Security Officer Glenn Podonsky asked the Department’s General Counsel’s Office for clarification on the issue in a memorandum, a copy of which was obtained by WC Monitor, that said an unidentified contractor had “recently asserted that its failure to maintain a Preliminary Documented Safety Analysis for a facility undergoing design and construction is not enforceable” under DOE regulations.