Board Staff Highlight Concerns at Savannah River
Kenneth Fletcher
NS&D Monitor
11/14/2014
The Department of Energy has accepted a formal recommendation from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on the need to strengthen emergency preparedness and response capabilities, but told the Board last week that it will need longer than a required one-year period to fully make improvements. The DNFSB recommendation issued in September was prompted, in part, by DOE’s response to a truck fire and radioactive material release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant earlier this year and other emergency response concerns. DOE is required to complete implementation of its plan within one year. “I am placing a high priority on addressing the Recommendation; however, due to the complexity and broad reach of the Department’s actions, we probably will not be able to complete our corrective actions within one year, in which case we will make the necessary notifications prescribed by law,” DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz said in a Nov. 7 letter to the DNFSB.
The events at WIPP in February highlighted shortcomings in DOE’s emergency preparedness and response program, the DNFSB noted. It called on DOE to take a series of steps by 2016 to strengthen its emergency response capabilities, including creating a “robust” emergency response infrastructure at all of its defense nuclear facilities. It also called on DOE to ensure that sites have training and drill programs staffed with fully competent emergency response personnel, are conducting exercises that challenge existing capabilities, and are constantly identifying deficiencies, and preparing and evaluating corrective actions. The Board also said DOE’s emergency management directive should be updated to address a number of severe events.
Actions that are high priority should be completed within a year, according to Moniz. “In developing an Implementation Plan to address each specific action of this Recommendation, the Department will expeditiously proceed with improvements, accomplishing the highest priorities within a one-year period. We will prioritize efforts and will maintain a dialogue with your staff as we move forward to address your concerns,” he said in his letter to the Board.
Concerns at Savannah River Highlighted
DNFSB staff highlighted numerous concerns about the state of the emergency preparedness at the Savannah River site in an Oct. 10 site representative report, which was publicly released this week. Funding for the central Savannah River emergency preparedness program has decreased the last five straight years, and the number of emergency preparedness staff for the site’s managing contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, has decreased by 40 percent in the last three fiscal years. “These numbers do not tell the whole story because the EP program has lost several experienced EP staff due to attrition while recent hires have often had little to no prior EP experience beyond being a drill participant,” the report states. “The decrease in staff has reduced the capability to conduct routine assessments of the EP program and develop new emergency drill and exercise scenarios.” It adds that repeatedly using the same drill scenarios “can lead to a false sense of preparedness when emergency responders know what initiated each scenario and what ‘surprises’ are coming up later in the drill.”
There is also a “lack of integration” between emergency preparedness, nuclear safety, operations and training that “appears to be leading to gaps in preparedness,” according to the DNFSB report. “Many accidents” that are included in the documented safety analyses are not addressed by either facility emergency preparedness drills or conduct of operations drills, the report states. “Although it can be argued that protective actions like sheltering or evacuation are generic to any radiological release, these other accident types could include scenario-specific recovery or mitigation actions. DSAs include dozens of explosion scenarios, but there are only a handful of explosion drills outside of tritium facilities,” according to the report.
Implementation of the conduct of operations drills, also known as 2S drills, is “very mixed,” according to the DNFSB report. “The state of preparation at the Defense Waste Processing Facility is uncertain in light of the very few 2S drills,” the report states. It also notes, “At HB-Line, DOE issued a finding last year because the 2S drill program had been eliminated and SRNS is still ramping up a new program.”
The DOE Savannah River Operations Office is working on the DNFSB recommendation, spokesman Bill Taylor said this week. “The Savannah River Operations Office and the Contracted Emergency Management Teams have reviewed the DNFSB Recommendation. DOE-SR will monitor the contractors’ corrective actions and will ensure effective measures are taken to address the areas of concern. SRS is committed to the safety and security of the Site and the community,” he said in a statement.
