Brian Bradley
WC Monitor
10/23/2015
The Savannah River Site’s H Canyon is expected to enter deliberate operations next week, and HB Line should start deliberate ops by the end of November, SRS announced on Wednesday. Site contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions entered a company-wide operational pause of all nonessential nuclear and non-nuclear operations on Sept. 11, after 400 grams of plutonium was placed in a container not marked for transport. As reported by WC Monitor on Sept. 25, DOE determined the mishandling was a violation of procedure, but not a nuclear criticality concern because the plutonium was sealed in 3013 packaging, which isolates stored materials from the outside environment.
The event was immediately self-reported and resulted in no injuries or damage to any equipment. H Canyon and HB Line will be the last of the paused SRS facilities to enter deliberate ops. SRNS will order an end to such operations at its units when “all actions of the deliberate operations plan have been completed,” a company press release states. “Actions to maintain sustainability of work practices have been developed and will be reviewed with DOE-SR senior management.”
Release from deliberate operations requires approval of SRNS’ president or executive vice president and the review of DOE-SR senior management.
