HANFORD — More improvements are needed in the way work is done at the Hanford tank farms, according to Peter Winokur, chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
"The staff reports clear improvement in some areas of conduct of operations, but persistent issues in other areas," wrote Winokur in a recent letter to the Department of Energy. The defense board staff observed work there in late 2010, a year after a similar visit.
The Hanford tank farms store 53 million gallons of radioactive waste in underground tanks until it can be treated for disposal.
Work is under way to empty waste from leak-prone tanks into sturdier tanks and to prepare the infrastructure needed to send the waste to the vitrification plant when it is ready to start treating the waste for disposal.
Senior management of contractor Washington River Protection Solutions has made a substantial effort to improve how work is done at the tank farms, including establishing a conduct of operations council and using conduct of operations coaches, Winokur said.
The intense focus on improving conduct of operations will be needed to prepare the tank farms for the far more intense operational tempo that will be needed to feed waste safely and efficiently to the vitrification plant starting in 2016, Winokur said.
However, the corrections planned to overcome weaknesses seen in 2009 have not been fully effective, he wrote.
The defense board staff saw problems in the quality and use of work instructions and technical procedures, some of them repeat problems from 2009, according to a staff report.
Some of the construction and maintenance work instructions are written in a way that makes them difficult for the workers in the field to understand and follow step by step, the staff report said.
"This lack of specificity and clarity decreases the usefulness of the work instructions, particularly for less experienced operators," the report said.
Among problems were misplaced warnings and cautions, insufficient details and steps not in a logical sequence.
The supervisors for the field work have numerous responsibilities at the work site and are not always closely involved in managing and directing work.
The board staff watched workers performing steps out of order while a supervisor was not closely watching and controlling the work, the report said.
The staff also watched seven pre-job briefings and saw problems at three of them. Not all key people attended, workers left the briefings for extended periods of time or supervisors did not use a checklist and failed to cover required items, the report said.
The Conduct of Operations Council, while a step in the right direction, needs more members representing union workers, which would help the council to win worker support for changes proposed by the council, the report said.
Four conduct of operation coaches were hired in the last year, according to the report. In addition four experienced coaches had been hired temporarily while the new coaches learned their jobs.
The experienced coaches' concerns were similar to those of board staff. Coaches said work packages are not well engineered and do not contain adequate detail, expectations are not clearly communicated during pre-job briefings and supervisors are overloaded, according to the report.
DOE appreciates the recognition of improvements in conduct of operations and is focused on strengthening the program, including the level of detail and consistency of work instructions, said Lori Gamache, DOE spokeswoman.
Winokur has asked for an update about progress in 180 days.
* Annette Cary: 509-582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com
