IG: Energy facilities lack complete continuity of operations plans
Five laboratories, including four nuclear sites, failed to test emergency plans or correct weaknesses, report says.
Several of the Energy Department's nuclear facilities aren't adequately prepared to handle emergencies, according to a recent inspectors general report.
A year-long review of emergency procedures at five Energy Department laboratories, including four nuclear sites, revealed that none had adequately tested continuity-of-operations plans or listed essential duties. Only one of the five had settled on a place to relocate in the event of an emergency.
Two of the sites lacked orders of succession for key jobs, and two weren't prepared to protect records and databases, according to the Energy IG report (DOE/IG-0657). "As a result, the department may face increased risks to its operations, employees and surrounding communities during an emergency situation," the report cautioned.
In addition, the five facilities-Sandia National and Los Alamos laboratories in New Mexico, the Hanford Site in Washington state, Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory with branches in Pennsylvania and West Virginia-hadn't corrected previously identified flaws in emergency plans, the inspectors general found.
At the Hanford Site, for example, employees failed during emergency drills in 2002 and 2003 to properly isolate workers exposed to contaminants. The problem hadn't been resolved when the IG reviewed the facility's emergency preparations.
All five facilities possessed adequate emergency communications networks, the inspectors reported. Of six broad emergency preparedness categories the IG looked at, this is the only one where all the facilities met expectations.
But the inspectors noted that, "absent detailed continuity planning documents," they could not tell whether the labs' communications networks would meet all needs in an emergency.
To help facilities better prepare themselves, the inspectors recommended that the Energy Department complete guidelines on continuity-of-operations planning and tailor the instructions to field sites. Officials at the five facilities reportedly said they "did not intend to prepare continuity-of-operations plans until the department defined exactly what was expected in the plans."
Energy should also ask facilities to verify that they have addressed identified lapses in emergency preparedness, and should make better use of a system meant to let sites share information about common challenges. The department designed the Society for Effective Lessons Learned Sharing system to track obstacles encountered at labs and "eliminate duplication of emergency management efforts across" sites, the IG report explained.
But Energy doesn't require facilities to use the information-sharing system, the report noted. The inspectors found only 39 emergency management lessons entered into the system, a small portion of planning weaknesses identified just at the five facilities studied.
In response to the report, Energy Department officials agreed to speed up the release of complete continuity-of-operations guidelines. The department also intends to make sure that facilities adequately address planning weaknesses pinpointed.