The nuclear safety systems at Department of Energy (DOE) sites that are meant to protect workers, the public, and the environment from hazards created in case of an accident are generally functioning well, the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) said in a report released last week.
The office reviewed independent safety systems at 11 DOE nuclear facilities between 2013 and 2015, including their maintenance, surveillance testing, operations, and oversight. These sites included the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Nevada Nuclear Security Site, the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories, the Hanford Site in Washington state, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. The report found that the safety system at each of the facilities reviewed met requirements to perform their intended functions, and that contractors at the sites were properly managing those systems.
Areas of weakness included procedure use and adherence, the review said, as “procedures were not always performed as written or not up-to-date.” This included instances in which preventive maintenance was not performed as intended by the work package, and instead “workers performed the maintenance in the manner they thought to be correct.” Additionally, it said most of the facilities did not ensure that nuclear facility operators received information on changes in site systems, such as electrical distribution, that could impact the nuclear safety technology. EA recommended DOE consider revising some of its directives on conduct of operations and facility safety for greater clarity on implementation of activities related to these systems.
Los Alamos National Security, the managing and operating contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), is seeking a subcontractor to provide canine explosive detection services (CEDS) at the site, according to a Request for Expressions of Interest it issued Monday.
The CEDS program seeks to deter threats posed by explosives through detection searches performed by canines and their handlers. This involves inspections of protected areas, the large truck inspection station, the shipping and receiving warehouse, and other random vehicle inspections.
The current CEDS subcontractor will expire on September 30. LANS plans to award a follow-on contract that will begin around October 1 for an estimated three-year base period of performance with two potential option years. The contract, set aside for small business, will feature an estimated 7,436 canine explosion detection hours.
According to the request for expressions of interest document, bidders who meet the source selection criteria will be evaluated during on-site performance testing of their CEDS teams, which will test canine and handler proficiency under different scenarios. Only teams that successfully complete the testing will be considered for the contract, the document said. Interested parties should submit an expression of interest by May 19 to PJ Timmerman, LANL’s subcontract administrator, at peej@lanl.gov.
International
NATO said last week it will hold its 12th annual Conference on Weapons of Mass Destruction Arms Control, Disarmament, and Nonproliferation next week in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The conference, to be held May 9-10, will involve “open and informal dialogue, addressing arms control and disarmament issues,” the NATO statement said. Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, the institution’s assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges, will chair the forum.
A State Department spokesperson said by email that the U.S. delegation plans to engage fellow participants at the conference “on the key challenges and opportunities for WMD arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation,” and to “discuss NATO’s role in addressing these issues.”
Last year’s conference, held in Doha, Qatar, brought together participants from approximately 50 nations and featured speakers such as NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow and United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane. According to the organization, its 2015 conference was held in preparation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference held later that year, and included discussions on terrorism, as well as chemical and biological weapons risks. The conference was held in Switzerland in 2014, Croatia in 2013, and Hungary in 2012.
