Qualitative risk evaluation for the retired surplus Hanford site facilities

As a legacy of its operating history, the Hanford site contains a large number of retired reactors and other nuclear facilities that remain to be decommissioned. These facilities are deteriorating and will eventually be demolished. However, final disposition of these facilities is a costly and time-consuming task, made so by the fact that the buildings may contain significant quantities of radioactive and other types of hazardous material. Risk issues from these facilities have received only a modest degree of attention, until now. Risk from these retired surplus facilities has always been assumed to be low. However, a fatal accident that occurred in the spring of 1992 in which an employee fell through a deteriorated roof at the 105-F reactor building has raised the possibility that retired facilities represent a greater risk than was originally assumed. Therefore, Westinghouse Hanford Company and US Department of Energy management have determined that facility risk management strategies and programmatic plans should be reevaluated to ensure risks are identified and appropriate corrective action plans are developed