The management contractor for the Transuranic Waste Processing Center (TWPC) at Oak Ridge has completed “corrective actions” and is ready to start the planned Independent Verification Review (IVR) at the site after an internal team “found a significant number of issues that were rolled up into eight findings,” according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site report recently released. Dated May 29, the report noted that the issues were discussed during a May 7 briefing held to verify that TWPC management contractor Wastren Advantage, Inc., was ready to implement its submitted revision to the TWPC Documented Safety Analysis (DSA), after the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in February informed Wastren that it would implement an enhanced oversight plan at TWPC.
According to the DNFSB report, Wastren’s management self-assessment (MSA) team found “no clear linkage” between Technical Safety Requirements (TSRs) and “several” operating procedures, a lack of commercial grade dedication (CGD) documentation for several new safety class and safety significant (SS) components—“namely, the CGD of cargo containers used for drum storage and credited in reducing the consequences of fire events”—no procedure to implement segregation of safety-related parts in material storage areas per DOE guidelines, and incomplete “personnel demonstration” of changes to the DSA/TSR. “This week, WAI’s Director of Operations confirmed that corrective actions are complete and they are ready to start the formal [IVR],” the report states. “The IVR is planned to take about a week and will include a demonstration of the canister overpack that will be used during the transfer of remote-handled waste to UCOR storage facilities.” The report notes that Wastren worked for the three weeks preceding the report date to address the discovered issues.
Wastren’s submitted revision includes a revised control strategy to address “increased potential dose consequences” resulting from applying new atmospheric dispersion modeling, and also addresses the deployment of an overpack for remote-handled canisters and controls, according to an April DNFSB site report.