Grading Based on Facility Remaining Lifetime cont'd

DOE-STD-1073-2003

Configuration Management

If the expected facility remaining lifetime is very long (i.e., more than ten years), then the

facility remaining lifetime is not likely to be a factor in grading, although it should be

used for decisions regarding document retention periods.

A facility remaining lifetime of less than ten years may impact the decisions on the effort

to be used to reconstitute design requirements for an existing facility. In general,

contractors should be able to develop and implement configuration management

processes for an existing facility in less than five years, but full reconstitution of the

design basis can take up to 10 years for the most complex facilities. For less complex

facilities, remaining lifetimes of five years or less may affect decisions on defining the

design requirements.

For existing facilities with remaining lifetimes of between 2 and 5 years, contractors

should consider the level of effort to be expended in establishing the configuration

management process. For example, CM SSCs might be defined to include only those

with safety or environmental design requirements. Moreover, the searches involved in

reconstituting the design might be limited to formal reviews and smart searches.

Facilities with a remaining lifetime of less than 2 years should undertake only those

configuration management activities that are important to the remaining operation or to

the next phase of the facility lifecycle. The SSCs included might be limited to those

related to safety. Contractors should conduct walkdowns to determine the degree of

consistency between the physical configuration and associated documentation, including

as-built drawings. The configuration management process should identify change control

mechanisms. Physical changes should be reviewed, approved, and documented.

Activities to reconstitute the design requirements might be limited to the formal review.

Reconstitution of the design basis might not be appropriate.

In all cases where limited facility lifetime is a factor in the grading of the configuration

management process, the subsequent lifecycle phases should be considered. For

example, while a contractor may discontinue the shipment of new waste to a tank farm, it

will still need to control the existing configuration to ensure that the wastes are properly

controlled. Another example is a processing facility that is deactivated and, many years

later decontaminated and decommissioned. Even though the facility will only be

operated for two more years, a process for configuration management will need to be

implemented during the periods of deactivation and decontaminations. The configuration

management process for the remaining operating period should be established with

consideration of the needs of the later phases of activity (deactivation and

decontamination).

Finally, many activities at DOE are planned and pursued over short time frames from a

couple of years to a few weeks. While the limited duration of the activity may need to be

considered in establishing a configuration management process, the short duration of

these activities should not be used as a basis for not managing the configuration. In some

cases, a single facility will be used for changing missions. In such cases, contractors may

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