Evaluation of the effectiveness of the US Department of Energy Integrated Safety Process (SS-21) for Nuclear Explosive Operations using quantitative hazard analysis

摘要

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the US Department of Energy Integrated Safety Process or ''Seamless Safety (SS-21)'' program for reducing risk associated with nuclear explosive operations. A key element in the Integrated Safety Process is the use of hazard assessment techniques to evaluate process design changes in parallel or concurrently with process design and development. This concurrent hazard assessment method recently was employed for the B61-0, 2 & 5 and W69 nuclear explosive dismantlement activities. This paper reviews the SS-21 hazard assessment process and summarizes the results of the concurrent hazard assessments performed for the B61 and W69 dismantlement programs. Comparisons of quantitative hazard assessment results before and after implementation of the SS-21 design process shed light on the effectiveness of the SS-21 program for achieving risk reduction.