DNFSB CONCERNED ABOUT LOS ALAMOS PLUTONIUM RESTART

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board wants Los Alamos National Laboratory to take more time to restart operations at its Plutonium Facility, which has been shut down since last summer due to criticality safety concerns. In a May 16 letter to National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz, DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur said the Board had been informed that Los Alamos National Laboratory will not conduct criticality safety evaluations (CSEs) for higher-risk operations before restarting work at the facility, which the Board said had been planned. Winokur requested a briefing from the NNSA within 14 days on “how the NNSA will ensure that adequate controls will be identified as the laboratory” restarts higher-risk work at the facility. The facility was shut down in June of last year, though some lower-risk operations have restarted. “Department of Energy directives and industry consensus standards require that CSEs unambiguously demonstrate how fissionable material operations will remain subcritical under both normal and credible abnormal conditions,” Winokur said. “These CSEs identify controls to ensure safe operation.”