Nuclear Hazard Category 2 Facilities

DOE-STD-1027-92

4.1.2.b

DEFINITION

Hazard Analysis shows the potential for significant on-site consequences.

INTERPRETATION

Facilities with the potential for nuclear criticality events or with sufficient quantities

of hazardous material and energy which would require on-site emergency planning

This category of facilities contains Category B reactors and the most significant

nonreactor nuclear facilities within the DOE complex. While these facilities are

different in design, construction, and operation, the non-reactor facilities are similar

in character to chemical industrial facilities. Extensive work has been performed in

the development of analysis techniques for such facilities. Many of these

techniques are documented in several American Institute of Chemical Engineers

(AIChE)-sponsored reports and are described in the Occupational Safety and

Health Administration (OSSA) Regulation, 29 CFR 1910.119, Process Safety

Management. Because these techniques are driven by the overall complexity of

the facility operations, judgment is needed on the type and level of analysis

required to obtain sufficient information on the safety of the facility in order to

judge its overall acceptability.

The facilities in this category represent a level of hazard for which significant

management attention is warranted and thus require on-site emergency planning.

Release Mechanisms

There are many analytical techniques available for evaluating the safety of the

wide spectrum of chemical and nuclear DOE facilities of varying complexity.

These techniques are commonly applied in the design and operation of various

types of processes in many industries. A good reference for applying these

techniques is "Selecting Hazard Evaluation Techniques of Guidelines for Hazard

Evaluation Procedures," Second Edition with Worked Examples (Center for

Chemical Process Safety, 1992). A list of target levels of analysis sophistication

for types of operations in order of increasing complexity is presented below:

Low-Complexity Operations

Use Hazard Analysis

Low-complexity operations include those in which very little or no

processing of materials takes place. Waste storage, vaults, tanks,

cylinders, canisters, or even very simple batch laboratories are examples of

such facilities. Release mechanisms are largely intuitive or straightforward

and can generally be identified by simple checklists. Hazard Analysis that