The head of a federal watchdog panel on Monday said major shortcomings
exist in an initial blueprint for averting potential disasters at an
unfinished highly enriched uranium processing center in Tennessee, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported .
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board "has determined that safety is not adequately integrated into the design" for the Uranium Processing Facility planned at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, panel head Peter Winokur said in a written statement to National Nuclear Security Administration head Thomas D'Agostino.
"Multiple significant unaddressed and unresolved issues exist with the (Preliminary Safety Design Report) and the development of the underlying safety basis for the facility," Winokur said. A number of problematic developments in preparations for the nuclear weapons complex facility have alarmed the panel, which believes the National Nuclear Security Administration and private entities acting on its behalf lack a recorded plan for complying with Energy Department accident prevention mandates at the site, he said.
The Energy Department has requested significantly more UPF financial backing in the next budget cycle to remove assets from the site's aging predecessors and push ahead with its assembly. Building efforts are due to start in 2012.
The watchdog panel has seen problems in preparations for the site to contain repercussions from any significant earthquake-induced disaster; safeguards against accidental fission reactions stemming from such a natural event; a necessity for "thorough" exploration of possible danger situations; and the importance of finding means to guard the citizenry from hazardous materials emitted by contained conflagrations.
The panel chairman demanded the use of "reasonably conservative values" in determining exposure to dangerous materials in a number of dangerous contingencies.
The head of an activist organization referred to Winokur's statement and a recently published assessment of the Y-12 site's operator in criticizing steps to speed up work on the uranium site.
"It's time to put the brakes on the rush to build the UPF," said Ralph Hutchison, coordinator for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (Frank Munger, Knoxville News Sentinel I, April 4).
The National Nuclear Security Administration, the semiautonomous Energy Department office charged with overseeing the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, on Wednesday said a significant quantity of the problems noted by Winokur "have already been addressed and are reflected in the revised Safety Design strategy for the project that is pending approval."
"This Safety Design Strategy documents upgrades to the UPF design to improve safety systems, such as confinement ventilation and fire barriers. Safety is a priority to this project and we will ensure that the UPF will be built with the full set of safety controls and features necessary to protect workers and the public," NNSA spokesman Steven Wyatt stated, adding that UPF blueprinting is roughly seven-tenths finished (Frank Munger, Knoxville News Sentinel II, April 4).
Meanwhile, a yearly NNSA review criticizes oversight by the operator of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico of a project to establish a new, on-site plutonium facility, the Albuquerque Journal reported on Wednesday. The Obama administration earlier this year said it was postponing by five years work on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement facility .
Elsewhere, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee on Wednesday welcomed an Obama administration move for a formal examination of management of the country's national laboratories. The Institute for Defense Analyses' Science and Technology Policy Institute would consider "various governance structures for the labs and provide recommendations for ensuring the labs are prepared to address future national security challenges," according to a press release.
Representatives Michael Turner (R-Ohio) and Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) in shared remarks said they had "become concerned about a governance structure that the National Academies of Science recently called ‘dysfunctional’ and ‘broken.’
"We must ensure these national labs are set up to face the many nuclear security challenges facing the nation, and we look forward to taking some concrete first steps at reform in the upcoming fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill to improve oversight that will enable a safe, cost-effective work environment and preserve scientific and engineering excellence at the laboratories,” the lawmakers said.
http://www.nti.org/gsn/
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board "has determined that safety is not adequately integrated into the design" for the Uranium Processing Facility planned at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, panel head Peter Winokur said in a written statement to National Nuclear Security Administration head Thomas D'Agostino.
"Multiple significant unaddressed and unresolved issues exist with the (Preliminary Safety Design Report) and the development of the underlying safety basis for the facility," Winokur said. A number of problematic developments in preparations for the nuclear weapons complex facility have alarmed the panel, which believes the National Nuclear Security Administration and private entities acting on its behalf lack a recorded plan for complying with Energy Department accident prevention mandates at the site, he said.
The Energy Department has requested significantly more UPF financial backing in the next budget cycle to remove assets from the site's aging predecessors and push ahead with its assembly. Building efforts are due to start in 2012.
The watchdog panel has seen problems in preparations for the site to contain repercussions from any significant earthquake-induced disaster; safeguards against accidental fission reactions stemming from such a natural event; a necessity for "thorough" exploration of possible danger situations; and the importance of finding means to guard the citizenry from hazardous materials emitted by contained conflagrations.
The panel chairman demanded the use of "reasonably conservative values" in determining exposure to dangerous materials in a number of dangerous contingencies.
The head of an activist organization referred to Winokur's statement and a recently published assessment of the Y-12 site's operator in criticizing steps to speed up work on the uranium site.
"It's time to put the brakes on the rush to build the UPF," said Ralph Hutchison, coordinator for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (Frank Munger, Knoxville News Sentinel I, April 4).
The National Nuclear Security Administration, the semiautonomous Energy Department office charged with overseeing the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, on Wednesday said a significant quantity of the problems noted by Winokur "have already been addressed and are reflected in the revised Safety Design strategy for the project that is pending approval."
"This Safety Design Strategy documents upgrades to the UPF design to improve safety systems, such as confinement ventilation and fire barriers. Safety is a priority to this project and we will ensure that the UPF will be built with the full set of safety controls and features necessary to protect workers and the public," NNSA spokesman Steven Wyatt stated, adding that UPF blueprinting is roughly seven-tenths finished (Frank Munger, Knoxville News Sentinel II, April 4).
Meanwhile, a yearly NNSA review criticizes oversight by the operator of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico of a project to establish a new, on-site plutonium facility, the Albuquerque Journal reported on Wednesday. The Obama administration earlier this year said it was postponing by five years work on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement facility .
Elsewhere, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee on Wednesday welcomed an Obama administration move for a formal examination of management of the country's national laboratories. The Institute for Defense Analyses' Science and Technology Policy Institute would consider "various governance structures for the labs and provide recommendations for ensuring the labs are prepared to address future national security challenges," according to a press release.
Representatives Michael Turner (R-Ohio) and Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) in shared remarks said they had "become concerned about a governance structure that the National Academies of Science recently called ‘dysfunctional’ and ‘broken.’
"We must ensure these national labs are set up to face the many nuclear security challenges facing the nation, and we look forward to taking some concrete first steps at reform in the upcoming fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill to improve oversight that will enable a safe, cost-effective work environment and preserve scientific and engineering excellence at the laboratories,” the lawmakers said.
http://www.nti.org/gsn/
