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Reforming a "Mountain" of Policy

Beginning with his confirmation hearings in January 2009, Energy Secretary Steven Chu challenged the Department of Energy to take a fresh look at how we conduct business. This challenge provided the opportunity for DOE to put in place the most effective and efficient strategies to accomplish the Department's missions safely and securely.

In response to the Secretary's challenge and building on the results of Deputy Secretary Poneman's Safety and Security Reform studies, the Office of Health, Safety and Security (HSS) broadened its directives review activities during 2009. By November 2009 HSS had initiated a disciplined review of all health, safety, and security directives, which included a systematic review of the Department's safety and security regulatory model. Following the mantra of identifying and eliminating requirements that do not add value to safety or security, Deputy Secretary Poneman issued the Department's plan for safety and security reform on March 16, 2010.

Over the next 18 months, the leaders and employees of the DOE program and staff offices and the DOE sites and laboratories worked to meet the Secretary's challenge as outlined in the Deputy Secretary's plan and as detailed in the Office of Health, Safety and Security Project Plan for Safety and Security Reform. Throughout this process, all parties involved exhibited high levels of professionalism to resolve specific areas of contention enabling the reform effort to achieve meaningful results.

Starting with 107 health, safety and security directives, HSS met its major project milestone to have 100 percent of HSS directives either complete or into concurrence review by September 30, 2011. HSS completed the entire project on December 4, 2012.

Summary Metrics on Directives Reform for the 107 HSS directives (March 2010 to December 4, 2012)

  • Directives Completed - 107 of 107 directives (52 Cancelled, 55 Revised or Re-certified)

Safety and Security Directives - Reform Cumulative Progress (December 4, 2012)

HSS Safety and Security Directives Reform - Status - December 4, 2012

Summary: HSS completed the entire project on December 4, 2012.

Top Level Status:

  1. HSS has completed reform efforts on all 107 directives (100 percent), with 52 directives cancelled, 39 directives revised, and 16 directives re-certified.
  2. Through the reform project, HSS reduced its safety and security directives from 107 to 55 (a reduction of 49 percent).

Recent Milestones Completions

  • DOE Order 420.1C, Facility Safety, and associated DOE Guide 420.1-1A, Nonreactor Nuclear Safety Design Guide for use with DOE O 420.1C, Facility Safety, were approved on December 4, 2012.
  • DOE Order 420.1C, Facility Safety, cancelled two related Guides, which were converted into DOE Technical Standards that are invoked in the Order; these Standards were also issued in December 2012: DOE-STD-1020-2012, Natural Phenomena Hazards Analysis and Design Criteria for Department of Energy Facilities; and DOE-STD-1066-2012, Fire Protection.

HSS Directives Reform - Key Milestone Status Chart (December 4, 2012)

End-State of HSS directives

  • Post-reform end-state: 55 HSS directives (8 Policies, 34 Orders, and 13 Guides).
  • Total Cancellations from March 2010: 52 directives cancelled or consolidated (49 percent of original scope of 107 HSS directives).

Safety and Security Directives Reform Documents