PNNL

Abstract

At the DOE Hanford site in Washington State, Fluor Hanford, Inc is in the process of developing and, procuring systems to remove and disposition sludge from the 100 Area K Basins. The K Basins were used to store spent fuel from the operating reactors at the Hanford Site. The sludge is a by-product from the corrosion of the fuel and fuel storage canisters. The sludge removal project is very dynamic involving two basins, K East and K West, and has an ambitious schedule for removal and subsequent Basin D&D. The challenge for the safety basis development for this project is how to integrate the analysis with the project schedule and still provide the required project design, development, and regulatory (10CFR830) support. During the development of new project/systems, safety analysis activities are used throughout the design phase to assist in identifying design/safety issues before the design is complete. Control allocation and identification processes assist procurement of equipment during the development phase and a PDSA is required to support the decision to proceed with construction/installation. For the K Basins project, all the safety basis development activities need to be done in the context of new and existing facilities/equipment and an existing safety basis for the K Basins. When schedules are demanding and design, procurement, and safety documentation activities must be completed in parallel, it creates complex issues for maintaining the safety basis current. In addition, developing a safety basis that will cover the lifecycle of the facility creates issues when using it to support the necessary short term decisions at the same time as long term planning. Therefore, it was necessary to develop a safety basis strategy to deal with this situation. This paper discusses the strategy developed to deal with the complexity and project schedule issues and the methods for safety analysis development and documentation being used to assist in maintaining some level of order in this seemingly chaotic situation. While the specifics of the safety basis strategy for the K Basins sludge removal project will be described in the paper, the general concepts of the strategy are applicable to similar projects throughout the DOE complex.