DNFSB Concerned With Pace of LANL?s Emergency Preparedness Progress

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) expressed concern over the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) progress in improving its emergency preparedness and response programs in a Jan. 7 letter from DNFSB Chairman Joyce Connery to the Department of Energy (DOE). Connery said the DNFSB is “concerned with the pace and completeness” of LANL’s drill program development after the board recommended DOE ensure its defense nuclear facilities identify deficiencies and implement corrective actions in emergency preparedness and response programs. The letter notes the DNFSB plans to conduct a comprehensive review of these programs in early 2016 and added that the DOE “should consider whether additional requirements or oversight are needed in this area.”

According to the DNFSB’s preliminary observations of weaknesses in LANL’s emergency preparedness and response program, drill scenarios “are incomplete and do not represent the spectrum of documented credible accident types,” drill planning and conduct “do not ensure that scenarios are sufficiently challenging and minimize artificiality and simulation,” and “command and control practices between facility and external responders are inconsistent across the nuclear facilities.” Other weaknesses include a potential “inability to effectively shelter laboratory workers in place during a release of hazardous materials” and little progress in developing emergency drill programs at some defense nuclear facilities, including the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research building and the Waste Characterization, Reduction, and Repackaging Facility, the DNFSB said.