The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has identified “systemic deficiencies” in safety strategies developed for nuclear operations at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Board said in a recent letter to National Nuclear Security Administration chief Tom D’Agostino. DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur outlined several areas of concern in an Aug. 30 letter to D’Agostino, including lingering concerns about the safety basis at the lab’s Tritium Facility. The DNFSB has sounded alarms about the safety basis at the facility for the last two years, and it said while improvements have been made, issues still remain with the performance criteria and surveillance test for the facility’s glovebox confinement system and controls to protect workers in the case of a fire rely too much on worker self protection. The Board also said that the hazard analysis for a classified experiment at the lab’s Plutonium Facility was deficient, and it said the lab “mischaracterized” increased risk in operating the Plutonium Facility while its safety-class fire suppression system was down. The Board said that the issues “collectively” indicate that the Livermore Site Office and laboratory are “applying insufficient rigor and conservatism in the development, review, and approval of safety control strategies.” It requested a report and briefing on NNSA’s “perspective and plans to improve” the safety control strategies in 60 days.
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