DNFSB approves upgraded glovebox safety at Savannah River

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said the National Nuclear Security Administration’s upgrade to safety controls, including to gloveboxes, is a “significant improvement” to safety at the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility.

The safety watchdog’s comments come in a letter dated May 21 to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, as well as to Teresa Robbins, acting administrator for DOE’s semi-autonomous nuclear arsenal maintenance agency the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

In an attached staff report from March 6, the Board said NNSA upgraded 200 gloveboxes, hoods and material system tunnel sections, more than 100 local alarms, the fire suppression system in the building, and an outer oxide container. “Overall, the staff team found that these new safety controls represent a significant safety upgrade to the facility that will greatly benefit facility worker protection,” the report said. 

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board also said that upgrading the controls addressed safety concerns from the past, including improving  the safety controls to glovebox alarms so alarms can “exceed a threshold quantity of pyrophoric plutonium,” and upgrading to a safety significant container to transfer plutonium oxide out of gloveboxes.

At the end of May, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the Fluor-led prime contractor at Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., said crews have started constructing gloveboxes to craft and shape the explosive fissile cores of nuclear weapons, or plutonium pits. Dennis Carr, on the brink of retirement from his CEO role at SRNS, said gloveboxes are a “key component” of pit production, particularly at Savannah River Plutonium Pit Facility.

Savannah River will make cores for the W93 warheads for the Navy’s eventual ballistic missile requirements. Meanwhile, in an online public comment forum in late May to scope input for a draft programmatic environmental impact statement on pit production, NNSA confirmed that, until a record of decision is issued from the environmental review, it is enjoined from installing classified equipment or introducing nuclear material at the Savannah River plant. The record of decision from the environmental review should be published in 2027, NNSA said.