The Office of Nuclear Safety establishes and maintains nuclear safety policy, requirements, and guidance including policy and requirements relating to hazard and accident analysis, facility design and operation, and QA.

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TECHNICAL STANDARDS PROGRAM

The DOE Technical Standards Program promotes the use of voluntary consensus standards at DOE, manages and facilitates DOE's efforts to develop and maintain necessary technical standards, and communicates information on technical standards activities to people who develop or use technical standards in DOE.

The following procedures should be used to write, revise, or maintain a DOE technical standard. They are also used to convert a DOE technical standard to a non-government standard or to form a topical committee:

Technical Standards Program Procedures

Monthly Status Reports are available: Technical Standards Reports.

BEYOND DESIGN BASIS EVENTS

Following the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident in Japan, DOE embarked upon several initiatives to investigate the safety posture of its nuclear facilities relative to beyond design basis events (BDBEs).

CRITICALITY SAFETY

The Nuclear Facility Safety Program establishes and maintains the DOE requirements for nuclear criticality safety. The DOE detailed requirements for criticality safety are contained in Section 4.3 of the DOE Order 420.1, Facility Safety.

INFORMATION ON DOE O 420.1C, FACILITY SAFETY

DOE O 420.1C, Facility Safety establishes facility and programmatic safety requirements for DOE and NNSA for nuclear safety design criteria, fire protection, and criticality safety.

RISK ASSESSMENT TECHNICAL EXPERTS WORKING GROUP

The Risk Assessment Technical Experts Working Group (RWG) is established to assist DOE in the appropriate and effective use of quantitative risk assessment in nuclear safety related activities. The activities of the group will help DOE ensure that risk assessments supporting nuclear safety decisions are conducted in a consistent manner, of appropriate quality, properly tailored to the needs of the decisions they are intended to support and documented. The RWG will also assist DOE in assessing the adequacy of available risk assessment tools and guidance supporting nuclear safety at its nuclear facilities.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

Quality Assurance is a structured management system used by the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration to provide confidence that their missions and goals are being met effectively. All work is conducted via the Quality Assurance management system, which also assigns responsibilities and authorities, defines scope and objectives, and provides the assurance for the achievement of quality. Quality Assurance also provides the framework to document and retain objective evidence necessary to verify adequacy and correctness and to provide a process for continuous process improvement. The establishment and maintenance of this management system is governed by the requirements described in DOE Order 414.1D, Quality Assurance.

10 CFR PART 830 NUCLEAR SAFETY TECHNICAL POSITIONS

Nuclear and Facility Safety Policy is the Office of Primary Interest (OPI) responsible for the development, interpretation, and revision of a number of DOE directives. Technical Positions to directives issued by Nuclear and Facility Safety Policy provide clarification for specific applications of the requirements in DOE orders, rules, and other directives.

FIRE PROTECTION PROGRAM

The Department of Energy (DOE) Fire Protection Program is multi-faceted. It includes published fire safety directives (Orders, standards, and guidance documents), a range of oversight activities, an annual fire protection program summary. DOE also sponsors fire safety conferences, various training initiatives, and a spectrum of technical assistance activities. This page is intended to bring together in one location as much of the Program's resources as possible to facilitate greater understanding, communication, and efficiency of operations.

NATURAL PHENOMENA HAZARDS PROGRAM

The Department of Energy (DOE) Natural Phenomena Hazards Program develops and maintains state-of-the-art program standards and guidance for DOE facilities exposed to natural phenomena hazards (NPHs). This program applies to both conventional, nuclear hazard category 1, 2, and 3, and radiological facilities. Direction and guidance is given for seismic, extreme wind, tornado, precipitation, flood, volcanic ashfall and lightening threats. This program also provides assistance, training, communications, and support to facilitate effective implementation of DOE’s NPH standards to assure public and worker health and safety.

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