The Department of Energy’s Office of Environment, Safety and Health Assessments, within the Office of Enterprise Assessments, is responsible for conducting assessments to provide information on programs and performance in protecting our workers, the public, and environment from hazards present at Department sites and operations. This information provides assurance to our stakeholders and identifies areas for improvement to our leadership to support the safe performance of the Department’s mission. We strive to provide balanced reports that identify areas of effective performance as well as weaknesses. We also strive to efficiently analyze complex activities and operations with an eye toward providing constructive and insightful assessments within a context that helps line management identify a path forward to make needed improvements. We meet these challenges through the competence and dedication of our staff and our proactive efforts to coordinate with line management before, during, and after inspection activities.
We also conduct special reviews and studies of safety and emergency management topics and activities where warranted based on circumstances or performance, at the request of line management, or as directed by senior DOE management or the Director, Office of Enterprise Assessments.
The Office of Environment, Safety and Health Assessments is divided into three sub-offices as follows:
NUCLEAR SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS
The Office of Nuclear Safety and Environmental Assessments has Site Leads (Site Leads are assigned to each DOE site with nuclear facilities and activities) and other technical subject matter experts (SMEs) (for example, Safety Basis, Design and Engineering SMEs). The Site Leads are responsible for maintaining operational awareness of the status of the nuclear facilities and operations through meetings, site visits, tours, issue status reviews, and review of operational, assessments, and performance data. The information gained through these activities is then utilized to make informed decisions about independent oversight reviews that are specific to the conditions at that site. Our SMEs lead reviews in their areas of expertise at the various nuclear facilities. Our Office also selects reviews (called Targeted Reviews) that are utilized to look across the Department at specific functional areas. Topics are selected based on such factors as performance trends, new or changed nuclear safety requirements, and the need for additional information to assess the status and adequacy of site nuclear safety documentation and its implementation.
WORKER SAFETY AND HEALTH ASSESSMENTS
The Office of Worker Safety and Health Assessments conducts assessments to provide independent information on occupational safety and health programs and performance.
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENTS
The Office of Emergency Management Assessments conducts assessments to provide independent information on emergency management program and performance.
We hope that you find this web site helpful in understanding the role of our Office and the process we use to fulfill our mission. If you have any comments or questions regarding the content of our web site or our organization, please contact Thomas Staker, Director, Environment, Safety and Health Assessments at Thomas.Staker@hq.doe.gov.