March 28, 2019

Preparedness for Firefighting Response at Los Alamos National Laboratory

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos) operates in “unique” hazardous environments that create special fire suppression and emergency management challenges.  Department of Energy Order 420.1C, Facility Safety, requires NNSA to ensure that Los Alamos has emergency response, including fire protection capabilities, regardless of who performs the function.  In addition, the Order requires Los Alamos to provide fire protection response capabilities that include pre-incident plans. 

The Los Alamos County Fire Department provides fire protection for Los Alamos through a Cooperative Agreement between NNSA and the County of Los Alamos, with the Los Alamos Field Office acting as the sponsoring office.  The Field Office is responsible for day-to-day oversight of the Cooperative Agreement.  Between 2009 and 2014, the Office of Inspector General, the Field Office, and Los Alamos expressed concerns that pre-incident plans lacked the information necessary for firefighters to effectively respond to incidents at Los Alamos.  Therefore, the objective of this inspection was to determine whether pre-incident plans complied with applicable policies.

We found that some pre-incident plans may not have complied with requirements of Department Order 420.1C.  Specifically, pre-incident plans did not include adequate information to support a timely and effective emergency response at Los Alamos due to an unresolved disagreement over pre-incident plan content.  In addition, Los Alamos’ actions to incorporate subject matter expert review to ensure accuracy for specified pre-incident plans were not effectively implemented.  During our review, we also noted that the Los Alamos Field Office did not ensure that sensitive Government information maintained in the Los Alamos County Fire Department’s management software and used to develop the pre-incident plans was properly protected.

Based on these findings, we made several recommendations related to establishing pre-incident plans at Los Alamos that will support a timely and effective firefighting response.  We also recommended that a cybersecurity assessment of the Los Alamos County Fire Department network and computers be conducted to assure that electronically held information is being properly protected.

Topic: Management & Administration