DOE-Idaho Operations Summary
Issued January 3, 2007
DOE-Idaho Bi-Weekly Operations Summary
For the Period of December 4 to December 18, 2006
Environmental Management
Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project
Summary of Occurrence Reports
(Note: Date below indicates when notification was made of the incident)
December 7: While performing box shredding operations at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project facility, an operator noticed a plume of smoldering dust had collected on a channel on the shredder door. Shredder operations were placed on hold and the treatment facility was evacuated as a precautionary measure. The dust was allowed to smolder out on its own, without incident. A follow-up investigation determined the smoldering incident is an operational event that is expected and analyzed in the facility fire hazards analysis, and that no additional fire protection measures are necessary at this time. (EM-ID-BBWI-AMWTF-2006-0030)
Environmental Management
Idaho Cleanup Project
Summary of Occurrence Reports
December 6: Safety documentation at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex requires that a remote fire watch, using video cameras, be maintained at both WMF-697 and WMF-698. That fire watch was lost when remote cameras went down during a computer software upgrade. Actions were taken to re-establish a fire watch in one of the buildings, but not the other, for a day, until the oversight was discovered. Mitigative actions were taken until the fire watch network link was re-established, and a critique was held to determine how to prevent such an oversight in the future. (EM-ID-CWI-RWMC-2006- 0024)
December 13: A problem with existing safety documentation was discovered at the CPP-603 Irradiated Fuel Storage Facility, after it was determined that the pins on spent fuel canisters were smaller in diameter than those analyzed in the safety documentation. Spent nuclear fuel movements in the canisters were restricted until the safety documentation can be updated.
(EM-ID-CWI FUELRCSTER-2006-0019)
Nuclear Energy
Idaho National Laboratory
Summary of Occurrence Reports
December 5: A researcher at the Reactor Technology Complex discovered that a radioactive source was much more radioactive than anticipated, and this increased radiation level, when added to other sources at the Material Test Reactor Labs, that exceeded the facility’s limits. The source was relocated and a critique held to determine why the radiation level of the source was inaccurate.
(NE-ID-BEA-RTC-2006-007)
December 6: Environmental work involving an inactive underground pipe at the Reactor Technology Complex was halted after sediment samples from the pipe indicated higher than expected radiation levels. A critique was held to determine the impact of the higher readings on the hazard level and safety documentation of the work. (NE-ID-BEA-RTC- 2006-0008)