January, 2015

Review of the Fire Protection Program at the Idaho Site Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project

The U.S. Department of Energy independent Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA), Office of Environment, Safety and Health Assessments, conducted an independent review of the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) fire protection program (FPP) at the Idaho Site. The AMWTP is established to retrieve, characterize, treat, and package transuranic waste currently stored at the Idaho Site. The AMWTP includes the Transuranic Storage Area (TSA) and TSA Retrieval Enclosure, the Characterization Facility, and the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility, which is used to size-reduce, sort, and repackage characterized waste. Fire protection at nuclear facilities was identified as a targeted review area for the Department’s independent oversight in 2013. Pursuant to the memorandum titled, Independent Oversight of Nuclear Safety – Targeted Review Areas Starting in FY 2013, dated November 6, 2012, this review was EA’s assessment of the effectiveness of the AMWTP fire protection program. It included an evaluation of key program elements; including the baseline needs assessments, fire pre-plans, the exemption and equivalency process, combustible control, the fire hazard analysis, and the inspection, testing, and maintenance program. The assessment also evaluated the integration of the fire hazard analysis and the documented safety analysis, as well as technical safety requirement surveillance and testing for various AMWTP facilities.