Industrial Hazards Exposure

DOE-HDBK-1132-99

Industrial Hazards Exposure . The changing nature of any decommissioning

project site demands not only good design and planning to eliminate as many

hazards as possible, but constant awareness of the changing conditions and

hazards present. Proper planning should sequence the work so that hands-on

work is completed in an area, or adjacent areas, before heavy equipment

demolition occurs. Other considerations include--

extremely loud operations within an area that affect workers who are

otherwise not affected;

work that may affect airflow or air quality of other facility workers;

overly prescribed protective clothing or administrative limits (a respirator

to mitigate a potential, but highly unlikely, minor exposure may introduce

a very significant risk by restricting vision or aggravating heat stress

issues);

life safety escape routes, which should be reevaluated as the facility

changes (what was an emergency escape path last week may be a

30-foot hole or a collapsed structure today);

fall protection.

Many of the old DOE structures that are being decommissioned have little or

no configuration management of the original electrical systems during the

surveillance and maintenance period. Electrical distribution systems could

have been cannibalized in the years since operations, further aggravating the

situation. This being true, one of the larger industrial hazards in a

decommissioning project is encountering live electrical equipment when

removing equipment, cutting conduit, or excavating around a facility even after

the application of lock and tags to known sources. Removing ALL electrical

power prior to the start of decommissioning within a structure should be a very

high concern. Removal in this case is defined as physical breaks in the circuit

by wire, transformer, or breaker removal, not by open breakers since old,

poorly maintained breakers could stick or malfunction. Even the task of

removing ALL electrical power can be daunting. Over the years as missions

change, extra or different voltage power may have been added and not

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