Purpose of DOE-STD-3024-98

DOE-STD-3024-98

SDD. Changes to the SDD itself are entirely within the purview of the DOE contractor within an

appropriate change control process.

An SDD supports the authorization basis and helps ensure that operations of the system will be

consistent with the authorization basis. While the authorization basis is focused on safety, the SDD is

broader because it also addresses other important features provided to accomplish the programmatic

mission, to maintain system reliability, and to promote effectiveness, efficiency, and flexibility in

operations and maintenance. To treat the SDD as a part of the facility authorization basis would be

counter-productive to these broader purposes.

The SDD promotes safe and efficient operation by providing the information necessary for a solid

technical understanding of the system. The SDD collects and provides significantly more detail than is

appropriate for authorization basis documents but less detail than the engineering design documents.

This level of detail is particularly appropriate for the intended audience of facility operations personnel,

maintenance personnel, and technical support personnel. The SDD identifies procedures for facility

operations, testing, and maintenance related to the system being described, and points the reader to

those specific documents in their proper context. This information leads to fewer operational errors and

incidents. SDDs also identify which performance characteristics of the system are the most important.

This information promotes a better understanding of where to exercise greatest care and attention to

detail. In both operations and maintenance, an understanding of why requirements exist promotes better

employee performance and adherence to safety management programs, implementing procedures, and

administrative controls.

The SDD is a convenient reference for evaluating the performance of the system. System performance

evaluations are important for several reasons. These include assessing overall facility operational

effectiveness and efficiency, compliance with regulatory requirements, the possible need for

improvements to increase system reliability, and the possible need for system design modifications to

meet changing programmatic mission needs and demands.

The SDD should be a controlled document and maintained as an authoritative up-to-date source of

technical information on the system. The SDD records technical information that might tend to get lost

as personnel changes occur over the years. SDDs can be used also as technical source documents for

the development of personnel training programs.

Purpose of DOE-STD-3024-98

This standard defines the expected technical content and organizational structure of SDDs.

Applicability

This standard may be used to develop an SDD for any new or existing system at any DOE facility.

Tailoring Requirements (Graded Approach)

Provisions and flexibilities have been incorporated into this standard so that it can be applied directly in

many situations and accommodate systems of varying importance and systems of different physical

types (such as ventilation, fluids, and electrical power systems).

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