Management of Aging 

Infrastructure at Sites with

DOE Defense Nuclear Facilities

Joyce L. Connery, Board Chair

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board

2023 Nuclear & Facility Safety Programs Workshop

September 12, 2023
First, Congratulations!

The Board values all the nuclear safety programs represented here, especially 

the facility representative and system safety oversight programs

• We laid the foundations of DOE’s modern facility representative program with 

Recommendation 1992-2, Facility Representatives, and

• We recommended the system safety oversight program in Recommendation 

2000-2, Configuration Management: Vital Safety Systems

Today, we are pleased to congratulate this year’s award winners 

• Mr. Robert Geray, Facility Representative at EM’s Idaho Cleanup Project

• Mr. Thomas Temple, Safety System Oversight Engineer at the Savannah 

River Operations Office

Thank you from all of us at the Board

for your exemplary service to DOE and the American public

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Why Worry about Aged Infrastructure?

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Aged infrastructure reduces personnel safety and performance

• Reduces morale in workers

• Increases housekeeping needs

• Encourages acceptance of lower standards

• Increases the potential for errors and accidents

• Places heightened pressure on maintenance personnel

• Interferes with safe conduct of work and leads to declining productivity

Age-related degradation increases risk to facility safety

• Increases component failure rates and reduces system reliability 

• Introduces common-cause failure modes that challenge safety analyses

• Reduces system resilience by limiting ability to respond to off-normal needs

• Creates failure modes that challenge SSCs or trigger unanticipated accident 

sequences
What is “Infrastructure?”

• In this discussion, the word infrastructure refers to all real property assets 

and their installed equipment that enables or supports activities or the 

DOE’s mission at a site 

• Basically, infrastructure is a system of systems; the functionality of an 

infrastructure is created by the combined functionality of the individual real 

property assets that support it

• Infrastructure management is about making informed decisions based on a 

systematic approach to evaluating component and system adequacy and 

vulnerability, understanding intersystem dependencies, and determining the 

potential consequences of system failure

• Aging management programs are some of the tools of infrastructure 

management, but the two are not synonymous

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Board Perspective on Infrastructure

DOE’s challenges extend to managing its aging infrastructure, ...particularly in 

systematically evaluating the infrastructure that supports the safe 

operation of its defense nuclear facilities.

DOE appears to struggle with implementing and maintaining necessary 

infrastructure and safety controls, even after recognizing the importance of 

those systems and controls to DOE’s ability to ensure adequate protection of 

its workers, the public, and the environment.

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board

33rd Annual Report to Congress, March 2023

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Aging Infrastructure Impact on NNSA

A well-organized, well-maintained, and modern infrastructure system is the 

bedrock of a flexible and resilient nuclear security enterprise. More than 60 

percent [of NNSA’s assets and facilities] are beyond their life expectancy, 

with some of the most important dating back to the Manhattan Project. 

NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby

House Armed Services Committee 

Subcommittee on Strategic Forces

March 28, 2023

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Building 9212, Y-12 National Security Complex. Built in 1945.
Aging Infrastructure Impact on EM

Hanford’s 56 million gallons of radioactive and 

chemical waste stored in 177 aging storage tanks 

represent EM’s greatest environmental risk and 

financial liability. Recognizing that additional 

delays bring greater environmental risks, 

exacerbate the impacts of already aging 

infrastructure, and increase costs, we are 

focused on moving the entire Hanford tank 

waste mission forward.

William “Ike” White

Senior Advisor for DOE-EM

Senate Armed Services Committee 

Subcommittee on Armed Forces

April 18, 2023

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241-C Tank Farms, Hanford

Waste Treatment Plant, Hanford
DOE’s Continuity Challenge

41 years ago: Some multiprogram laboratory facilities are in obvious need of repair. 

DOE management is aware of this, [but] it does not know the true condition of all 

facilities. (GAO, February 1982)

33 years ago: DOE faces major challenges including modernizing facilities that have 

deteriorated over the 30 to 40 years since their construction. DOE must also...ensure that 

it operates in compliance with current environmental, safety, and health standards. (GAO, 

September 1990)

20 years ago: The seriousness of infrastructure deficiencies, combined with competing 

needs...and historical weaknesses in project management, make implementing plans for 

infrastructure revitalization a management challenge for [DOE]. (GAO, January 2003)

11 years ago: Of the few major [NNSA] projects that were successfully completed...we 

could find no successful historical major project that both cost more than $700 million 

and achieved CD-4 in less than 16 years. (IDA, November 2012) 

5 years ago: NNSA may have to defer certain modernization work planned for fiscal years 

2018 through 2021. ...this deferral could exacerbate a significant bow wave of 

modernization funding needs that NNSA projects for the out-years. (GAO, February 2018)

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Why No Continuity?

As a government agency, DOE faces inherent challenges that complicate its 

ability to maintain continuity on long-term programs like infrastructure renewal

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• Frequently changing missions, priorities, 

budgets, leadership, and world events

• Extremely complex missions with rapidly 

evolving technology

• Urgent need for continued and expanded 

operations in aging facilities

• Aged assets may degrade faster than they 

can be refurbished or replaced

• High costs associated with nuclear and 

specialized products and construction

• Changing workforce and loss of corporate 

knowledge and experience

Tritium Facility, Savannah River Site
Sub-recommendation 1 of R2020-1

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From reaffirmed Recommendation 2020-1: 

Develop and implement an integrated approach—including 

requirements—for the management of aging infrastructure 

that includes formal processes to identify and perform 

infrastructure upgrades necessary to ensure facilities and 

structures, systems, and components can perform their 

safety functions.

The approach needs to be 

integrated into DOE’s current 

real property and nuclear 

facility management processes.

The concern is about DOE’s 

management of aging infrastructure and 

the need to ensure that it can continue 

to perform its safety functions.

The approach needs formal 

processes for identifying 

and performing necessary 

infrastructure upgrades

Requirements need to be 

established at Secretarial 

level (i.e., directives)
Recipe for Success

Consider some of the most successful safety improvements in DOE:

• Integrated Safety Management Systems have been key to personnel and 

facility safety for almost 30 years

• DOE Facility Representatives have provided vital day-to-day oversight of 

facility operations for over 30 years

• Operational Readiness Reviews have helped ensure the safe startup of 

facilities for over 30 years

• DOE System Safety Engineers have ensured the quality and availability of 

the safety systems that the nuclear facilities rely on for over 20 years

What do these programs have in common?

• The requirements are integrated into DOE’s system of directives

• The essential elements are established at the secretarial level

• The approach includes formal processes and appropriate guidance

• The scope and intent of the programs are well defined and understood

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Scope of Sub-recommendation 1

The Board perceives that there has been some confusion about the scope of 

the aging infrastructure sub-recommendation 

• The Board’s concern extends to all real property assets and installed 

equipment that provide or support a safety function at a DOE defense 

nuclear facility, regardless of whether those assets are inside or outside 

the facility’s DSA-designated boundary

• Examples include

• Electrical substations and distribution systems

• Centralized process steam and heat plants

• Fire stations, firewater tanks, pumphouses, and firewater pipes

• Emergency Operations Centers and facility assembly areas

• Access roads and bridges

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Examples

SRS H-Canyon 

Exhaust Tunnel Structural Integrity

• Constructed in 1953, the tunnel is a critical part of 

H-Canyon’s safety class ventilation system

• SRS has monitored and documented age-related 

degradation since 1990

• Evaluations since 2011 noted that degradation is 

severe and may impact post-seismic functionality

• Since 2011, Board and DOE have evaluated this 

issue with multiple analyses, letters, and briefings

• DOE is now pursuing a new safety strategy that 

does not rely on the tunnel for post-seismic safety

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Examples (continued)

NNSS Device Assembly Facility

Firewater Supply Tank

• Constructed in 1985, the tank is a safety class 

SSC in the current DSA

• Seismic vulnerabilities recognized around 2006

• Tank replacement was a planned improvement 

in the 2008 DSA

• An inspection in 2010 reported significant rust 

and blisters in coatings but no deep pitting

• By 2022, inspections reported widespread rust 

and blisters with significant deep pitting

• Facility is now operating under a JCO, and 

replacement project is scheduled for 2025

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NNSS Device Assembly Facility

Ceiling Section 2010 Ceiling Section 2022
What Needs to be Done?

• DOE needs a set of requirements that create an integrated, systematic 

framework for managing its infrastructure

• Infrastructure is a system of systems; DOE needs a framework that 

considers individual assets as components of the bigger system

• DOE’s infrastructure is already significantly aged, DOE should consider 

infrastructure adequacy as a strategic goal and facility safety as a priority

• Understanding risks is key to decision-making; DOE should implement an 

enterprise risk management system as the foundation for managing its 

infrastructure

• There are agencies and consensus standards bodies that address aging 

management, such as NRC, IAEA, and IEEE; DOE should look to those 

groups for demonstrated processes and strategies for its infrastructure

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Moving Forward

• The Board is encouraged to see the increased focus on DOE’s aging 

infrastructure

• Both EM and NNSA are building enterprise-level views of their 

infrastructure and identifying performance metrics

• That effort will aid senior managers in understanding the infrastructure risks 

DOE faces and support their decisions on infrastructure strategies

• DOE needs to build on this increased focus by institutionalizing it into 

clear and adequate directives before momentum is lost to another priority

• Short term investments in infrastructure improvement will have a big 

payback

Most importantly, DOE’s missions will also benefit 

from improved infrastructure

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Your Role is Important

As facility representatives, safety system oversight engineers, and other 

technical experts responsible for nuclear safety, you have important roles to 

play

• Your familiarity with, and frequent presence in the facilities allows you to give 

DOE a unique perspective on the infrastructure and its needs

• You listen to the workers, you hear what concerns them, you share their 

workspaces

• You are a significant influence on the DOE managers, the contractor 

managers, and the workers; they listen when you speak

Use that knowledge and experience to aid DOE managers in

understanding the condition of the infrastructure within the which

work is being done, and the impact of infrastructure on that work

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