LLNL statement on the Department of Energy�Price-Anderson Citation

Our Laboratory has been working aggressively over the past year to correct and remedy the situations cited today by the Department of Energy/Price-Anderson Enforcement Office.

Examples are:

• The self-initiated programmatic shutdown of the Laboratory’s Superblock Facility in January 2005 to address configuration management and safety related issues.  Since then, work has been resumed systematically to ensure safe operations.

 

• Senior managers have conducted walk-downs and detailed physical reviews of laboratory-wide high-hazard activities. Safety contracts with senior managers have also been implemented to hold individuals personally accountable. These contracts, required by the Director of the Laboratory, stipulate that senior managers personally certify safety practices within their organizations.

 

• Specific improvements in such areas as configuration management, the formality of operations within our nuclear facilities, incident response and safety procedures, additional radiation protection program staffing and training improvements, quality assurance and communications. 

 

• A new Institutional Performance Analysis (IPA) Office now tracks all internal and external assessments and required close-out dates, analyzes potential issues and applies a "lessons learned" strategy systemically across the laboratory.  A new senior management council regularly reviews the work of the IPA office, providing additional quality assurance. 

 

• The Lab’s internal Price-Anderson office structure and program expectations have been aggressively strengthened. PAAA personnel have implemented new causal analysis, verification and validation procedures.

These actions are part of an overall plan to continuously improve the culture, procedures, quality assurance and overall performance of the safety program within our Laboratory.   We are committed to making these changes and to achieving a best-in-class safety and quality assurance program.