THE COLD AND DARK PROCESS AT THE SAVANNAH RIVER SITE

The deactivation and decommissioning (D and D) of a facility exposes D and D workers to numerous hazards. One of the more serious hazards is coming into contact to hazardous energy sources (e.g. electrical, pressurized steam). At the Savannah River Site (SRS) a formal process for identifying and eliminating sources of hazardous energy was developed and is called ''Cold and Dark''. Several ''near miss'' events involving cutting of energized conductors during D and D work in buildings thought to be isolated identified the need to have a formal process to identify and isolate these potentially hazardous systems. This process was developed using lessons learned from D and D activities at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (Rocky Flats) in Colorado. The Cold and Dark process defines an isolation boundary (usually a building perimeter) and then systematically identifies all of the penetrations through this boundary. All penetrations that involve hazardous energy sources are then physically air-gapped. The final product is a documented declaration of isolation performed by a team involving operations, engineering, and project management. Once the Cold and Dark declaration is made for a building work can proceed without the usual controls used in an operational facility (e.g. lockout/tagout, arc flash PPE). It is important to note that the Cold and Dark process does not remove all hazards from a facility. Work planning and controls still need to address hazards that can be present from such things as chemicals, radiological contamination, residual liquids, etc., as well as standard industrial hazards