Livermore safety problems

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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LIVERMORE LAB 

Livermore Lab safety problems reported 
U.S. probe finds ventilation flaws at plutonium building 

Keay Davidson
San Francisco Chronicle 
May 7, 2004 


Federal investigators have found significant deficiencies in safety
procedures at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, saying lab
employees and the public face increased risks, including the possibility
of a radioactive fire that could burn for days. 

Investigators for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in
Washington, D.C., a congressionally mandated advisory group to the U.S.
Department of Energy, say recent changes by the lab to its safety plan
are flawed and not as reliable as systems that were previously used. 

In a five-page report dated March 17, the safety board investigators
cite flaws in the lab's safety plan for Building 332, the lab's
plutonium building. 

The ventilation system, for example, is supposed to prevent radioactive
material from escaping during an accident. But now, changes to the
previously reliable ventilation system have downgraded it enough to
raise concerns about public safety, says a letter from safety board
Chairman John Conway to the Energy Department. 

The April 12 letter, addressed to Linton Brooks, the Energy Department's
National Nuclear Security Administration administrator, accompanies the
investigators' report. Both documents are posted on a federal Web site --
www.dnfsb.gov/pub_docs/llnl/sir_20040412_ll.pdf. 
...

for the entire story, see
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/07/MNG1A6HEJD1.DTL

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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