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Report prompts concerns of chain reaction at Y-12
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Magnu-@aol.com
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Oct 04, 2009 20:41 PDT
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_http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/oct/03/report-prompts-concerns-of-chain-r
eaction-at-y/_
(http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/oct/03/report-prompts-concerns-of-chain-reaction-at-y/)
Report prompts concerns of chain reaction at Y-12
* * By _Frank Munger_
(http://www.knoxnews.com/staff/frank-munger/)
* Posted October 3, 2009
OAK RIDGE - A federal safety panel is raising concerns about the
possibility of an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction at the Y-12 National Security
Complex, which houses the nation's primary stockpile of weapons-grade
uranium.
In an Aug. 28 report, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said
recent events at Y-12 "indicate a lack of rigor in adhering to and enforcing
criticality safety and procedural requirements." Criticality safety rules are
designed to prevent fissile materials such as enriched uranium from
achieving nuclear fission and releasing dangerous amounts of radiation.
According to the report, a Y-12 safety officer had discovered "multiple
violations" the previous week involving the storage of sample materials -
apparently enriched uranium.
"This is the third occasion during the past few months in which criticality
safety personnel discovered storage configurations that violated
criticality safety postings," said the report, which was sent to the safety board's
headquarters in Washington.
Nuclear safety issues have hurt the Oak Ridge plant in the past.
Production operations at Y-12 were shut down in 1994 in part because of an
inadequate response to an infraction raised by an inspector with the
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. It was years before some of Y-12's key
facilities came back on line.
The safety board report also noted that production workers at Y-12 had
violated a "procedural criticality safety requirement" in Building 9212 by
putting too many contaminated filters in the same drum.
The safety board's report appeared to be critical of the response by B&W
Y-12, saying the Y-12 contractor focused its response primarily on the
miscommunication between the operators and did not discuss the actual problems
in carrying out the procedures. Also, a senior manager was not present during
the critique, as is called for by B&W's own protocol for such events, the
report said.
In a Sept. 4 report, the safety board said that B&W's senior management
subsequently responded by increasing the presence of safety officers and
emphasizing training.
Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration
at Oak Ridge, said criticality safety is "essential" to safe and secure
operation of Y-12, and he said federal officials are concerned about the
violations.
"Each of the infractions reported in the DNFSB report represents a
deviation in overall conduct of operations, and does represent a concern to NNSA,"
he said.
However, Wyatt said the overall quantities of enriched uranium involved in
these cases were "very small," and he said there was "little or no risk of
a criticality" from improper storage of the materials.
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