Final Team Meeting - doe-hdbk-3012-20030019

DOE-HDBK-3012-2003

findings are resolved. Experience indicates that this question may arise at any time during the ORR

including during the final team meeting. The decision to recommend that operations NOT be commenced

represents a significant failure on the part of the organization tasked to achieve readiness and must not be

made lightly or without clear basis in fact.

The ORR Team Leader has a significant challenge to ensure the facts clearly support a decision that

readiness has not been achieved to safely commence operations. A decision of that magnitude should be

thoughtful and not made quickly. No single team member should be permitted to inappropriately

influence the remainder of the team. The facts that support the decision should be written and factually

verified and persuasive to the team as a whole before a decision is final. The team should be required to

consider the proposal over night to ensure that the facts still lead to the same conclusion that readiness has

not been achieved and that resolution of the findings will not provide adequate confidence for the team to

recommend start of operations.

In the event that the ORR Team determines that readiness has not been achieved and that a

recommendation to start operations when the findings are resolved cannot be given, the appropriate path

forward must be defined. The ORR Team Leader must keep the Authorization Authority or contractor

senior manager who directed the ORR to start informed of the conditions and appraised of the possible

options. The final decision as to the path forward will reside with the Authorization Authority or

Contractor Senior Manager.

Options that should be considered if a recommendation to commence operations cannot be made are to

either suspend the review or to complete the review with a determination that the review is not

satisfactory. In both cases, it is understood that line management responsible for achieving readiness was

not successful. In all cases, it is important that the team provide a written report of the activities

completed, the issues identified, and the recommended path forward. In most cases, it should be possible

for the report to reflect areas of the review that were completed and satisfactory with the resolution of

identified findings. Those areas that are completed should not require additional review when the review

is restarted. These might typically include support functions such as training or maintenance as example

that might be adequate to support safe operations even though the operations themselves may not be

ready. The team that reassembles to complete the review should be of appropriate size to review the areas

that remain. In a few cases in the past, the state of readiness was so deficient that the entire review was

repeated, including the formation of a new team and the development of a new Plan of Action and a new

Implementation Plan. In cases such as that, the written report should identify the significantly deficient

status of achieving readiness and recommend that the review be repeated when readiness has been

achieved. More is required, under these circumstances, than simply resolving the findings. The entire

process for achieving readiness must be repeated with emphasis on a more successful outcome.

4.3 FINAL TEAM MEETING

This is the last opportunity to work directly with team members and clarify any questions that have

persisted throughout the ORR. Final Forms 1 and 2 are due prior to this meeting, as is a draft summary

evaluation of the assigned objectives for inclusion in the final report. This is the last opportunity to

discover and address dissenting opinions and conflicts prior to presenting the ORR results to the site.

Any such issues must be addressed at this time to avoid any confusion at the closeout meeting. Since no

new information will be discussed at the final team meeting, it is appropriate that this meeting be

restricted to team members only.