The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has closed a 2004 recommendation that called on the Department of Energy to strengthen its active confinement systems at National Nuclear Security Administration and Office of Environmental Management sites. When it drafted the recommendation, the Board was concerned that DOE was relying on passive or non-safety related confinement systems for its nuclear facilities, and the recommendation called on DOE to include active confinement ventilation systems in all Hazard Category 2 and 3 facilities.
The recommendation led to upgrades at facilities across the weapons complex, including Lawrence Livermore’s Plutonium Facility, Sandia National Laboratories’ Annular Core Reactor, the Nevada National Security Site’s Criticality Experiments Facility, the Savannah River Site’s Waste Solidification Building, and Y-12’s Buildings 9212, 9215, and 9204-2E. Facilities at EM sites like Idaho National Laboratory, Hanford, Savannah River, Oak Ridge, and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant also were upgraded. Only Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility has not completed upgrades, but those are expected to be completed by the end of the year, DOE said in a late June message to the DNFSB. “The Board is pleased to observe the significant enhancements made by DOE in this important safety area,” DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur said in a July 15 letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
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