For FY 1996, the Office of Defense Programs, also referred to as Defense Programs, has identified $644M as needed for environment, safety and health activities. This represents 18.2% of the total FY 1996 Defense Programs operating budget of $3,540M. The Office of Defense Programs' environment, safety and health funding profile is broken down as follows:
| Year | FY 96 Funds |
| Program | $298.0 |
| Indirect | $345.7 |
| Total | $643.7 |
The Office of Defense Programs' Planning Process and Assumptions
The Defense Programs FY 1996 2000 Environment, Safety and Health Management Plan was prepared in accordance with Departmental guidance and is consistent with the FY 1996 budget request. The Office of Defense Programs integrated environmental, safety and health planning with the Defense Programs Strategic Plan (December 1992, Interim Update April 1993) and the Multi-Year Program Plans (April 1993) to produce a coordinated Environment, Safety and Health Plan consistent with current planning assumptions. These planning assumptions included the nation's defense strategies in light of reduced Superpower tensions, the reduced threat of nuclear war, and the Administration's initiatives for resource-constrained, risk-managed environment, safety, and health planning. The reconfiguration of the nation's Nuclear Weapons Complex calls for reducing the nuclear weapons stockpile while maintaining the core research, development, and testing capability to prevent jeopardizing the nation's nuclear preparedness.
The Office of Defense Programs Complex in FY 1996 will be composed of 8 facilities:
Mission planning reflected in the Office of Defense Programs' FY 1996 2000 Environment, Safety and Health Plan includes:
Budgeting for landlord responsibility for the Mound, Pinellas, Rocky Flats, and Savannah River Sites have been transferred to Environmental Management (EM) in FY 1996.
The former Materials Support program activities remaining in DP will be included in the Stockpile Management Decision Unit in FY 1996. Research and Development and Testing are eliminated as decision units. Within these former decision units, Emergency Response activities have been transferred to Stockpile Management and the remaining activities re-organized into a new decision unit Stockpile Stewardship.
Current Status of the Office of Defense Programs' Safety and Health Program
Decades of cold war weapons production at an accelerated pace led to an expansive Complex of now aged and often neglected facilities. These facilities have been designated to either undergo transition to shutdown and cleanup operations, or continue fabrication and storage operations while maintaining compliance with current standards and directives. In light of resource-constrained budgets and eased global nuclear threats, Defense Programs faces numerous problems, common across DOE, concerning mission planning and the maintenance of structures and equipment determined to be surplus facilities.
The Office of Defense Programs is attempting to apply a risk-based approach to balance these programmatic needs with the more tangible demands of a deteriorating complex undergoing major reconfiguration.
Major Risk Issues and High Priority Activities Addressed in the Office of Defense Programs' Environment Safety and Health Plan
Nuclear Safety: Major activities in support of Nuclear Safety include development of functional SARs for Nuclear Facilities, implementation of quality assurance requirements, calibration programs, safety reviews and appraisals, and training. Significant funds are to be directed at evaluating and improving integrity of facilities (buildings and equipment).
Radiation Protection: Efforts are being expended to decontaminate areas in support of the As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) requirements of 10 CFR 835 and DOE Order 5480.11 objective of attaining a contamination-free work-site. The objective is to reduce the size of the high contamination areas, and increase the size of clean areas at various plants. The ultimate goal is to reduce exposure and to reduce operating funds due to the presence of work- site contamination. Defense Programs is managing radiological protection issues with a graded approach and significant risks are addressed with planned activities.
Worker Safety: DOE has provided directives that mandate full compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations. In order to achieve compliance with these regulations; repair, modification, or purchase of new facilities and equipment are required. Major areas affected by these upgrades are working surfaces, egress, electrical systems, material handling equipment, functional and educational training, hazardous material use and storage, construction safety, and health requirements.
Other Functional Areas: Routine inspections of all plant equipment and facilities are ongoing to ensure the safety of personnel and the environment in compliance with all applicable state and federal laws (including OSHA), orders, directives, and best management practices. Significant resources are being devoted to emergency operations preparedness, including those activities supporting development and maintenance of DOE's capacity to respond to nuclear weapons accidents both within the United States and worldwide. Base emergency readiness will be addressed in order to provide safety and health professionals for, and in response to, incidents involving environment, safety, or health parameters. Additionally, significant resources are being devoted to oversight, assessment, and core elements of safety and health programs cross-cutting all functional areas.
Environmental Management:
Significant dollars are being expended in the area of environmental compliance. Capital purchases are needed to replace, repair, upgrade, and install new basic equipment, including equipment to maintain operable conditions and prevent environmental release, in compliance with Clean Air and Clean Water Act requirements. Significant dollars are also needed to comply with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements for Environmental Impact Statements. Principal NEPA documentation that will be generated includes Tritium Supply and Recycling Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), Stockpile Stewardship and Management PEIS, Site-Wide EIS for Continued Operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test Facility EIS (LANL), Nevada Test Site and Other Off-Site Test Locations Within the State of Nevada Site-Wide EIS, Proposed Interim Storage of Enriched Uranium Above the Maximum Historical Storage Level at the Y-12 Plant Environmental Assessment, Continued Operation of the Pantex Plant and Associated Storage of Nuclear Weapon Components EIS.
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Last modified: 02/27/96 16:17:28