Due to vacancies, the Savannah River operations office for DOE nuclear cleanup is not doing safety system oversight assessments as often as specified in agency guidance, according to a report out this month from the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments.
It has become a common refrain across the weapons complex, and now, staffing holes are posing challenges for DOE’s liquid-waste contractor in South Carolina.
Also, Savannah River Mission Completion, led by BWX Technologies, is having a tough time keeping enough maintenance workers at the Concentration, Storage, and Transfer Facilities, the Office of Enterprise Assessments said in the report.
The contractor’s staffing plan shows out of a total of 110 craft personnel assigned to these facilities, “the tank farm maintenance organization is currently understaffed” by eight mechanical and five electrical-and instrumentation technicians. “The primary reason for the staffing shortfall is the lack of qualified applicants and the tight labor market,” the Office of Assessments said.
While safety oversight and procedures are adequate, DOE’s assessment office identified several deficiencies including the lack of backup system engineers, the need for some refresher training as well as needed revisions to the documented safety analysis.
