For FY 1996, the Office of Environmental Management and Waste Restoration, also referred to as the Environmental Management Program, has identified $1,326M for safety and health activities (all non-allocated environmental activities are managed and reported through the Environmental Management Program s Activity Data Sheets and are not included in this report). This represents 20% of the total FY 1996 Environmental Management Program operating budget of $6,592M. The Office of Environmental Management's safety and health funding profile is broken down as shown in Table 6.2-1.
| Year | FY96 Funds |
| Program | $1,137.7 |
| *Indirect | $188.6 |
| Total | $1326.3 |
The Office of Environmental Management's Planning Process and Assumptions
The Environmental Management Program is facing numerous challenges over the next several years due to significant budget restrictions brought on by the national atmosphere of fiscal constraint in government spending. In order to make the best decisions it can in the interest of taxpayers, the Environmental Management Program is moving toward a more systematic framework for decision making, using risk information as a major tenet in the decision making process.
In 1994, the Department requested that the National Academy of Sciences advise on whether and how risk information and risk-based decisions could be incorporated into the Environmental Management Program. The report, Building Consensus Through Risk Assessment and Management, determined that risk-based decision making was both feasible and desirable. More recently, DOE has adopted Risk Principles, based on principles developed for Federal agencies by an interagency committee, and modified them to apply to DOE.
In October 1994, Congress requested that DOE evaluate risks posed to the public health and safety by the current conditions at weapons complex facilities. In order to both support the report to Congress and to move toward more systematic risk-based decision making, the Environmental Management Program gathered and analyzed risk information for all of its activities around the complex. The process for accomplishing this was adapted from the Department's Environment, Safety and Health Management Planning Process and associated Risk-Based Priority Model. At the facility level, the information gathered was used in justifying the FY 1996 Congressional Budget Request. More importantly it was concluded from this effort that the risk reduction expected from the completion of Environmental Management Program activities is significant, and associated budgets are being directed toward high risks to the public, workers, and/or the environment. While questions remain and are being addressed regarding issues such as future land use and the impacts of the current regulatory framework on risk reduction, it was determined that the qualitative evaluation of the Environmental Management Program s activities set in the context of the Department s Risk Principles can be a useful tool for decision-making.
The Environmental Management Complex is currently composed of 15 major facilities:
The Environmental Management cleanup effort continues to face increasing safety and health risks as a result of the following:
Increasing numbers of facilities are being transferred to the Office of Environmental Management (an additional $843M of Defense Program formerly operational facilities has been transferred in 1996);
A reduction and change in the skill mix of both DOE and contractor employees involved in remediation projects.
Environmental Management's cleanup activities are inherently more hazardous and require more manpower than more typical operating environments.
In addition to its environmental restoration and waste management missions, the Environmental Management Program also focuses on other issues, such as keeping nuclear materials safe, maintaining or stabilizing facilities, and promoting the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. With increasing numbers of cleanup workers to be employed at these hazardous sites, proper worker and management training and oversight will be essential.
Current Status of the Office of Environmental Management's Safety and Health Program
The Environmental Management Program, as outlined in its budget policy statement, bases its budget requests upon the principle of risk reduction and the explicit requirements of enforceable agreements and Federal laws. The constrained fiscal environment in which all Federal programs operate dictates that the Environmental Management Program make every effort to conduct required compliance activities within prescribed target funding levels. The formulation of the proposed program also must continually focus on the Environmental Management Program s six highest priorities:
To eliminate and manage the urgent risks and inherent threats that exist in our system;
To provide a safe workplace that is free from accidents, injuries, and adverse health effects;
To establish a system that is in control managerially and financially;
To demonstrate tangible, outcome-oriented results;
To focus the technology development program on identifying and overcoming obstacles to progress to ensure that these efforts benefit our economy; and
To develop a stronger partnership between the Department and its stakeholders.
The Environmental Management Program has initiated several undertakings to meet each of these six goals. The first two of these goals specifically involve safety. Specifics include:
"Goal 1: Manage and eliminate the urgent risks and inherent threats that exist in our system"
This is being accomplished by developing and implementing processes to identify and characterize risks and threats and by planning and executing risk/threat mitigation in all activities.
Actions across the complex include:
"Goal 2: Provide a safe workplace that is free from accidents, injuries, and adverse health affects."
Actions across the complex include:
Additionally, in April 1995, the Secretary approved the Environmental Management Safety and Health Plan. The Plan was developed to supplement Environmental Management s 1994 Strategic Plan with a limited set of key initiatives which would be the building blocks for long term improvements in worker safety and health in the Environmental Management Program. The Plan outlined the problems, goals and actions in five key areas (requirements and procedures, responsibility and accountability, resources, worker participation, and performance measures for worker safety and health). Policy statements, results from pilots, and guidance were being finalized at the time this report was written; results will be detailed in FY 1997 report.
Major Risk Issues and High Priority Activities Addressed in the Office of Environmental Management's Safety and Health Plan
Nuclear Safety: Large amounts of fissile material currently remain in place at the former production facilities throughout the DOE Complex. The process of repackaging and stabilization of this material and aggregating/concentrating it into new forms is being addressed to ensure that only safe quantities will be processed, packaged, and stored and that the Office of Environmental Management's margin of safety at each step of this process is clearly understood. A comprehensive NS Program includes performance of the following work: ensuring programmatic directions and requirements are cost effective and clearly articulated, Nuclear Safety Compliance Documentation, Nuclear Safety Compliance Verification, complex-wide implementation plans for DOE Order 5480.28 and 10CFR830.215
Radiation Protection: Significant efforts are continuing on the establishment of a high quality radiological control program, fully compliant with the Radiological Controls Manual, 10 CFR 834 and 10 CFR 835. Areas of emphasis include: Coordinating the implementation of 10 CFR 835's occupational radiological protection program provisions, provide technical interpretation, guidance, and instruction on compliance requirements, impacts, and development of compliance matrices/plans as required for Federal Laws and DOE Orders, i.e., 10 CFR 820, 10 CFR 834, DOE Order 5480.19, etc. Additionally, significant funds are being directed into core programs such as dosimetry management and administration, external and internal dosimetry technical support, and administering radiological access control entry systems.
Worker Safety: This includes providing basic Industrial Safety services and responsibilities required for the safety oversight, reviewing and providing formal comments on an increasingly large number of Energy Systems Procedures, DOE Orders, etc., to ensure accuracy, determine potential site impacts, and to ensure that safety-program related concerns are communicated in a timely manner, oversight and inspection, maintenance of effective safety promotional programs, and support development of Hoisting & Rigging, Pressure Vessel Safety, Near-Miss, and Traffic Safety Programs. IH programs include, but are not limited to: Hazard Communication, Hazardous Waste Operations (HAZWOPER), Laser Safety, Asbestos, Heat Stress, Respirator Protection, HEPA/Ventilation Testing, Confined Space, Media Sampling, Personnel Sampling, Instrument Calibration, Ergonomics, Air and Noise Quality, subject matter expert training support. Additionally, resources are providing occupational health services that maximize the health and safety of every employee and minimize workers' personal and occupational health risks. These services include a unique integration of industrial hygiene and occupational medicine that help DOE contractors manage health risks.
Other Functional Areas:
Major expenditures in the areas of fire protection and emergency preparedness are planned in FY 1996 to further compliance with external regulations. Construction of the Hazardous Materials Management and Emergency Response (HAMMER) facility is underway. This facility is a centralized training and education center dedicated to hazardous materials workers and emergency response teams. Additionally, 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:
The waste management and environmental restoration activities of the Environmental Management Program comprise the largest portion of total program expenditures. While the funds of these activities are not captured in this report, there are significant associated safety and health concerns associated with these activities that warrant discussion in this report.
The Office of Waste Management activities include managing the treatment, storage and disposal of wastes, and working to minimize the amount of new wastes generated. The Department is faced with a variety of wastes, including high-level radioactive waste (such as the waste found in the Hanford tanks), transuranic waste, hazardous waste, and mixed waste (both radioactive and hazardous). The waste management program is also responsible for managing the Department s spent nuclear fuel. Some 2,700 metric tons of highly radioactive spent fuel is stored at various sites around the country. Some of the fuel is corroding, and some has been in storage for as long as thirty years; far longer than the planned storage time for this material.
Priorities and challenges for FY 1996 in waste management include:
Begin operations at the Defense Waste Processing Facility at Savannah River and at the West Valley vitrification facility.
Finalize the EPA compliance plan for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
Continue to safely manage and treat the 61 million gallons of liquid high-level radioactive waste stored in 177 underground tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington.
Implementing the decisions of the Spent Nuclear Fuel Environmental Impact Statement.
Implement Site Treatment Plans for mixed waste under the Federal Facility Compliance Act, and plan for the storage and disposal of treated mixed low-level waste.
The Office of Environmental Restoration is responsible for the assessment and remediation of facilities and land no longer used for nuclear weapons production, as well as other inactive sites. These sites range from contaminated buildings to abandoned or inactive waste disposal sites. It is this portion of the overall Environmental Management Program that is often described as the cleanup program.
The major activities of the Environmental Restoration program are:
Safe management and remediation of contaminated sites, characterization, remedial action, decontamination and decommissioning and closure activities at over 30 major DOE installations.
Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Project (FUSRAP), which currently includes 41 former Manhattan Project or Atomic Energy Commission sites and five other sites added by Congress.
Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project, which conducts remediation of 24 inactive uranium mill tailings sites.
Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) Fund, which provides D&D, remedial actions, site-wide landlord requirements, and surveillance and maintenance efforts at the uranium enrichment facilities at Portsmouth, Ohio, Paducah, Kentucky, and the inactive K-25 Site at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.
Finally, the mission of the Office of Nuclear Materials and Facilities Stabilization is to reduce the high risk conditions associated with unstable excess nuclear and chemical materials left intact at former nuclear weapons production facilities and reduce the maintenance funds associated with stabilizing buildings awaiting decontamination or final disposition.
Priorities and challenges for Nuclear Materials and Facilities Stabilization include:
Completing the stabilization of 1,600 liters of Pu-242 solutions and 16,000 corroding plutonium targets pending completion of the Interim Nuclear Material Management Environmental Impact Statement.
Continuing thermal stabilization of 10kgs of pyrophoric plutonium oxides to eliminate the risk of fire.
Continuing deactivation of several high funding, high risk facilities, such as the Plutonium-Uranium Extraction Plant at Hanford.
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Last modified: 02/27/96 16:17:28