The Department of Energy published a revision of the Nuclear Safety Management rule in the Federal Register on Jan. 10, 2001, consolidating several DOE directives and requiring that new and existing safety analyses for nuclear facilities comply with the rule by April 10, 2003.
Facilities are categorized as "nuclear" when sufficient quantities of certain types of nuclear material such as plutonium are used or stored there. To assure the protection of workers, the public, and the environment, the Nuclear Safety Management rule requires that DOE contractors prepare and maintain detailed safety analyses for each nuclear facility they operate. These safety analyses must identify hazards and controls in sufficient detail to assure that work can be conducted safely before the DOE will allow operations to proceed.
Los Alamos' 40-square-mile site has 17 nuclear facilities, including the nation's only full-capability plutonium facility at Technical Area 55, three major facilities for work with tritium and the waste storage and inspection facilities at TA-54. The completion of this effort assures that the Laboratory's nuclear facilities can continue to operate without compromising safety.
"This is a major accomplishment, representing more than three years of hard work by dozens of dedicated individuals in the Laboratory's nuclear facilities and our Performance Surety Division," said Jim Holt, associate director for Operations at Los Alamos. "We're pleased and very proud to complete this crucial and highly complex effort."
Obtaining Safety Basis Authorization includes a formal, step-by-step process for defining each nuclear facility, identifying hazards and putting necessary controls into place. This process, or safety basis, defines a bounding "safe operating envelope" in which the facility can operate.
"Through this process, we ensure that we maintain our nuclear facilities to the highest possible standards needed to protect our workers, the public and the environment, while fully supporting our defense mission," Holt said.
Meeting the requirements, in effect, means that the Laboratory's nuclear safety regulations have undergone a major transition, from a DOE-mandated regulatory system to one governed strictly by federal law, Holt said.
The Safety Basis Requirements included preparing documented safety analyses and establishing hazard controls for each facility, then developing technical safety requirements based on the safety analyses. The Laboratory had to obtain DOE approval for the methods used to prepare the safety analyses and for the final documents.
Los Alamos staff began working with DOE nuclear safety experts more than a year before the formal requirement was published. The Los Alamos Site Office of the National Nuclear Security Administration was instrumental in helping the Laboratory meet the deadline.
Ralph Erickson, manager of the Los Alamos Site Office said, "I am very proud of this accomplishment and the manner in which the federal and Laboratory personnel worked together through some very difficult issues to achieve this important milestone."
Los Alamos enhances global security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health and national security concerns.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.