Cold vacuum drying facility: Phase 1 FMEA/FMECA session report

The mission of the Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Project is to remove the fuel currently located in the K-Basins 100 Area to provide safe handling and interim storage of the fuel. The spent nuclear fuel will be repackaged in multi-canister overpacks, partially dried in the Cold Vacuum Drying Facility (CVDF), and then transported to the Canister Storage Building (CSB) for further processing and interim storage. The CVDF, a subproject to the SNF Project, will be constructed in the 100K area. The CVDF will remove free water and vacuum dry the spent nuclear fuel, making it safer to transport and store at the CSB. At present, the CVDF is approximately 90% complete with definitive design. Part of the design process is to conduct Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). A four-day FMECA session was conducted August 18 through 21, 1997. The purpose of the session was to analyze 16 subsystems and operating modes to determine consequences of normal, upset, emergency, and faulted conditions with respect to production and worker safety. During this process, acceptable and unacceptable risks, needed design or requirement changes, action items, issues/concerns, and enabling assumptions were identified and recorded. Additionally, a path forward consisting of recommended actions would be developed to resolve any unacceptable risks. The team consisted of project management, engineering, design authority, design agent, safety, operations, and startup personnel. The report summarizes potential problems with the designs, design requirements documentation, and other baseline documentation