The Department of Energy (DOE) has submitted its informational memorandum on open emergency management deficiencies at defense nuclear facilities as part of the DOE’s implementation of its complex-wide emergency preparedness and response improvement program.
The department has been developing its implementation plan since the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) recommended in 2014 that DOE create a complex-wide framework by the end of 2016.
A July 14 letter from Deborah Wilber, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Emergency Operations, to DNFSB Chair Joyce Connery transmitted the document, which lists deficiencies that were reported by defense nuclear facilities between October 2015 and February 2016. In some cases the issue had been resolved or there was no deficiency to begin with; others are ongoing, with the report listing a planned closure date.
The report lists dozens of findings spread across the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Sandia National Laboratories, and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; the Nevada National Security Site; the Hanford Site in Washington state; the Idaho National Laboratory; the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California; the Pantex Plant in Texas; the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee; and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Only the Idaho and Lawrence Livermore labs were found to have no open deficiencies, while WIPP had completed all of its corrections.
DOE spokeswoman Shelley Laver said by email that the new emergency management system will begin initial operation by the end of this calendar year.
“Department volunteers are currently participating in a training and education program that includes: Incident Command System (ICS); the National Incident Management System (NIMS); a series of increasingly complex Table Top Exercises (TTXs), and an ‘All-Hazards’ exercise to assess the readiness of volunteers to respond to an emergency affecting Department equities,” she said.
Among the open emergency management items cited in the DOE document:
At the Nevada National Security Site, deteriorating radio communications equipment may lead to “program support system failures,” according to the report, which notes that a contract has been awarded to replace the system. Installation of the new system is “on-track for 2016,” DOE said, with a planned closure date at the end of September 2017.
At the Pantex Plant, the document says a new methodology for evacuating uncleared personnel during an emergency needs to be developed, based on an issue in which security personnel instructed uncleared people to stay in a building when employees were otherwise trying to evacuate. The planned closure date for this corrective action is next January.
The Sandia National Laboratories had several open items, the corrective actions for which largely involved updating documents and training procedures for emergency management exercise objectives. Several issues had been closed.
At the Savannah River Site, “the [Savannah River Nuclear Solutions] exercise program does not validate all elements of the emergency management program over a five-year period.” The corrective action, due for completion in April 2017, involves developing a five-year exercise schedule incorporating all mandates in DOE Order 151.1C, Comprehensive Emergency Management System, including alternate command facilities, backup power systems, sheltering and evacuation of workers, and other areas.
Laver also noted that the DOE’s implementation plan was revised and submitted to DNFSB on July 22. “The revised IP included updates to milestones and dates as well as provided some additional clarification of actions being taken by the Department,” she said.