Resolving Conflicting Information

DOE-STD-3024-98

specific documents, it would seem senseless not to use it just because it is not-safety-related. The majority of

the cost of retrieving the information has already been spent, so it would be very cost-effective to include this

non-safety information in the SDD, also. Besides, SDDs are not limited in scope to safety-related

information.

RESOLVING CONFLICTING INFORMATION

Invariably it seems, we will find that some information in one source document does not agree with

information in another source document. Fortunately, most of the time, these conflicts can be quickly

resolved. For example, the cognizant system engineer may be able to identify information that is outdated

and no longer applicable. However, sometimes, the conflicts cannot be easily resolved. In these cases the

conflict should be formally documented and tracked until it is resolved. It is recommended that a log of Open

Items for the SDD be kept for this purpose.

The Open Items need to be reviewed to determine if any are safety-significant. Safety-significant Open Items

should be treated as discrepancies within the facility non-conformance program. The discrepancies need to

be reviewed also to determine if any impact "Operability" of any systems, or might be "reportable

occurrences." Open Items that are not safety-significant, but involve critical information that could have an

adverse impact on facility operations should also be formally tracked to closure.

MISSING INFORMATION

With the retrieval of design information completed, a determination should be made regarding what

information may still be missing and if any of that information is truly critical to safety or to effective and

efficient operations. If the missing information is not critical, do not invest any more time and money into

perfecting the data bank. If the missing information is truly critical, a plan must be developed to recover that

information. Here again, the DOE-STD-3009 approach to the problem may be valuable. In a few cases,

calculations or analyses might have to be regenerated.

Att 2-3