January 2012

Assessment of the Nuclear Safety Culture and Management of Nuclear Safety Concerns at the Hanford Site Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Enforcement and Oversight (Independent Oversight), within the Office of Health, Safety and Security (HSS), conducted an independent assessment at the DOE Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) to evaluate the current status of the nuclear safety culture and the effectiveness of DOE and contractor management in addressing nuclear safety concerns at WTP. This assessment provides DOE management with a follow-up on the October 2010 HSS review of the WTP nuclear safety culture.

The supplemental volume provides additional technical details regarding a September through December 2011 assessment of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The assessment was performed by an Office of Health, Safety and Security (HSS) Independent Oversight team. This detailed information is provided to help the DOE Office of River Protection (ORP), the DOE WTP Project Office, and the WTP contractor (Bechtel National, Incorporated) in their efforts to improve the safety culture and safety management.

This supplemental volume includes three technical appendices, which contain detailed results developed during the HSS Independent Oversight assessment. Appendix A provides the results of a review of the WTP safety culture by external independent safety culture experts. Appendix B presents the results of the Independent Oversight team’s assessment of ORP’s management of safety concerns. Appendix C presents the results of the Independent Oversight team’s assessment of the WTP contractor’s management of safety concerns.