The Nuclear Safety Program mission is to support the design, construction, operation, and deactivation and decommissioning of the Paducah and Portsmouth nuclear facilities in a manner that ensures adequate protection of workers, the public, and the environment.

Major Responsibilities:
  • Establish and implement nuclear safety requirements that utilize national consensus (or other government) standards or applicable external agency regulations (Nuclear Regulatory Commission, etc.) in accordance with DOE’s processes for developing and implementing rules, directives, and technical standards. Key nuclear safety elements to be addressed include hazard identification, assessment and control; facility design; quality assurance; and safety management programs to ensure a high level of formality of operations, such as procedures, facility management, maintenance, personnel training, conduct of operations, criticality safety, emergency preparedness, fire protection, radioactive and hazardous waste management, and radiation protection.

  • Support implementation of the Department’s Integrated Safety Management that systematically integrates safety into management and work practices at all levels, so that missions are accomplished efficiently while protecting the workers, the public, and the environment.

  • Use a safety management approach that minimizes the use of hazardous materials, establishes appropriate hazard controls based upon a primarily qualitative hazard analysis, and implements a defense-in-depth approach to hazard control.

  • Ensure that quantitative and probabilistic risk assessments, when employed, are used in a manner that:

    • Supplements qualitative/deterministic processes for hazard assessments, hazard control development, and safety management programs development,

    • Is consistent with DOE directives, and

    • Is supported by industry practices and availability of risk data.

  • Ensure operations are conducted such that:

    • Individual members of the public are provided a level of protection from risks associated with DOE operations that equates to no significant additional risk to life and health than that to which members of the general population are normally exposed, and

    • DOE workers’ health and safety are protected to levels consistent with or better than that achieved for workers in similar industries.