DEFENSE NUCLEAR FACILITIES SAFETY BOARD

January 3, 1997

Mr. Gubanc and Mr . Ogg were on leave Monday through Wednesday.

A. Fluor Daniel Hanford (FDH) ES&H Management Plan: As discussed in our December 20, 1996, report, FDH issued the final ES&H Management Plan to DOE-RL at the end of December. DOE-RL's initial reaction is that the ES&H Plan does not provide any specifics as to how work will actually be accomplished nor does it attempt to integrate the variety of other ES&H-related plans currently called for by the contract. We agree. DOE-RL expects to prepare and issue its response to FDH in January. Current sentiments are to reject the plan and withhold some portion of the $1.3M performance fee associated with this contract deliverable. DOE-RL and FDH's path forward beyond this, however, is not yet clear.

On a related note, the following ES&H-related plans have also been submitted to date by FDH as required by their contract:

1. Management and Integration Plan
2. Systems Engineering Management Plan
3. Internal Audit Plan
4. Sitewide Qualification and Training Plan
5. Quality Assurance Plan

Copies have been requested. As noted with the ES&H Plan above, it is not yet clear to us how these plans fit together to form an "integrated safety management system". The implication is that FDH is just working to generate contract deliverables but has not yet started to integrate them. We are continuing to pursue this matter with DOE-RL management.

B. FDH Overhead Growth: FDH provides certain site-wide services (e.g., training) and assesses an overhead "tax" on the various projects to pay for them. FDH has recently indicated that the overhead costs are higher than planned and so will increase this tax accordingly. Since the site's overall budget is fixed, this overhead growth must be funded out of the existing project budgets thus reducing the funds available to perform project work. We suggest the Board specifically ask DOE-RL about this when it is briefed on the Hanford spent fuel program on January 17th.

C. Acts of Nature: Starting December 25, 1996, record snowfalls blanketed the area making outdoor activities and vehicle movement extremely difficult and hazardous. Extended rains and warm temperatures starting December 31, have cleared away most of the snow.

On January 1, 1997, an earthquake measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale was observed in Yakima, WA. Yakima is approximately fifty miles, due west of the Hanford 200 Area.

D. New Deputy Manager: Last week, DOE-RL announced that Mr. Lloyd Piper has been appointed the Deputy Manager for DOE-RL. Mr. Piper has been acting in this capacity since September 1996.

cc:

Board Members