Kenneth Fletcher
NS&D Monitor
4/04/2014

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week closed a 2005 recommendation that called for stricter nuclear material packaging requirements, but the Board is asking for an updated schedule for the Department of Energy’s improvements. The original recommendation called for technical criteria for nuclear material packaging and prioritization of packaging according to the hazards of each material. In 2008, DOE issued a manual with the new requirements and in 2009, DOE provided a repackaging implementation plan and schedule. “The Board appreciates the periodic briefings by DOE on its implementation of the Manual at the sites and notes that Los Alamos National Laboratory has made steady progress toward implementing the requirements of the Manual. However, progress toward implementation at some of the other sites has been limited and is well behind DOE’s September 16, 2009, schedule,” states a March 31 letter from the DNFSB to DOE.

In addition to LANL, repackaging was needed at the Savannah River Site and Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national laboratories. Upon closing the recommendation this week, the Board requested within 120 days updated schedules for implementing its repackaging manual, an updated schedule for repackaging and DOE’s “plan for phasing out the Manual and converting the content into an appropriate directive” to “ensure sustainability of the effort.”