September 27, 2024
The Y-12 National Security Complex’s (Y-12) core manufacturing and processing operations are housed in decades-old buildings near or past the end of their expected life spans. As a part of the multi-element approach to aging management of these facilities, the Y-12 contractor recently developed an outage program based on best practices from the commercial nuclear power industry. For Y-12, planned pauses in production operations (i.e., outages) provide the opportunity to conduct maintenance activities more efficiently as well as implement proactive equipment maintenance, which increases equipment reliability. Other activities that can more efficiently occur during planned outages include equipment modifications, refurbishments, and replacements. Figure 1 represents the ongoing focus areas and objectives for implementation of the Y-12 outage program.
Figure 1. Current focus areas for Y-12 outage program implementationThe current goal at Y-12 is to conduct four planned outages per year per facility to allow for planned maintenance activities. These outages are integrated with the production schedule to minimize the impact on manufacturing and processing goals. Y-12 is still addressing implementation concerns, specifically ensuring that planned outage work is ready to be executed prior to the planned outage (e.g., engineering evaluations complete, work packages complete).
During the last two years of implementing the outage program, the Y-12 contractor observed a reduction in the need for reactive, unplanned outages due to equipment failures. Other sites may also be leveraging an outage program to address aging issues. Consequently, the Board’s staff highlights the benefits of an outage program for the Department of Energy to adopt as a best practice for its sites.