Office of Environment, Safety and Health Evaluations
(Reports to the Office of Independent Oversight)

Mission and Functions

Mission
The Office of Environment, Safety and Health Evaluations evaluates environment, safety, and health (ES&H) programs and integrated safety management (ISM) throughout the Department to determine the status and provide feedback to line management for needed improvements. These activities are undertaken to ensure adequate protection of the public, workers, and the environment at DOE sites.

Functions

• Conducts oversight of the adequacy of DOE environment, safety and health policy and programs, including the implementation of safety-related quality assurance requirements.
• Conducts multidisciplinary environment, safety and health program inspections that focus on performance throughout the Department. These inspections focus on the implementation of ISM at major DOE sites and include examination of management systems and environment, safety and health programs related to all DOE activities and all facility life cycles, including design, nuclear facility authorization basis, construction, operation, deactivation, decontamination, decommissioning, and environmental restoration. These inspections also evaluate the effectiveness of line management oversight activities.
• Conducts focused short-notice inspections of environment, safety and health policy and program implementation as necessary to further evaluate and follow up on performance trends at selected sites and facilities.
• Selects focus areas for review based on inspection results, operational data, ongoing initiatives, and/or external feedback. These areas are reviewed both corporately and at a sampling of sites to determine best practices, crosscutting issues, and opportunities for improvement. The results are published in reports and provided to HSS for follow-up.
• Provides feedback to Departmental line organizations on environment, safety and health performance and determines the adequacy of corrective actions developed in response to this feedback.
• Communicates the results of these appraisals to appropriate authorities, including DOE senior management and stakeholders such as Congress.
• Conducts briefings to apprise senior DOE and contractor managers and stakeholders (including the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, citizen advisory boards, and Congress) on the results of appraisal activities and on environment, safety, and health performance.
• Coordinates with the Office of Price-Anderson Enforcement when appraisal activities identify potential noncompliance with the Rule consistent with the Price-Anderson Amendments Act.
• Maintains a broad internal and external perspective on trends by providing national and international representation on environment, safety, and health professional organizations.
• Performs special studies to evaluate issues, adverse safety performance, or trends at selected sites.
• Plans and conducts regular evaluations of safety management policies, programs and ISM implementation throughout the Department. These evaluations take the form of integrated safety management inspections, focused reviews, follow-up reviews, and reviews of historical environment, safety and health practices, whose scope encompasses all aspects of operations, from development and institutionalization-including implementation of management systems-to working level (e.g., review of specific projects, design activities, observation of work activities, and assessment of essential safety systems and nuclear facility authorization basis). Reviews evaluate management effectiveness against laws, Code of Federal Regulation Rules, Departmental requirements, and specific environment, safety and health performance standards.
• Publishes the results of inspections and focused reviews in reports, and where appropriate, apply the Office of Independent Oversight color rating system to evaluate overall site performance. Identify areas of effective performance, weaknesses, safety issues, and opportunities for improvement, and in doing so, promote improved ISM implementation and environment, safety, and health performance.
• Reviews associated corrective action plans for adequacy, monitors implementation progress, and conducts follow-up evaluations to determine the status and effectiveness of corrective actions.
• Validates environment, safety, and health evaluation results and safety issues with DOE and contractor line management and staff.
• Develops an annual report for the Secretary on the overall status of ISM and identifying strengths, best practices, common weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.