Since that time, significant changes have taken place in the TWRS program. DOE now intends to contract a majority of the work to private vendors, who will be paid a fixed price for the service. Several projects have been canceled. As a result of these changes, DOE is revising the Implementation Plan for Recommendation 92-4. As DOE attempts to develop the TWRS, there are several ongoing activities that will affect the eventual performance of the system.
Tanks continue to be vulnerable to leakage.
Tank BY-112 was suspected of leaking when, in February 1997, several liquid level readings fell below baseline values. Although some progress has been made in implementing systems engineering for one project within the TWRS, the process as defined by the TWRS Systems Engineering Management Plan and implementing procedures has not been fully institutionalized. Development of functions and requirements and generation and analysis of alternatives are being performed to develop a technical requirements specification for the double-shell tank system. Requirements from this specification will be allocated to various projects, including project W-211. While such a process represents a reasonable approach to the systematic verification of existing project designs, the Board staff saw little evidence that other projects are following or are scheduled to follow this approach.