Sandia News

Environmental Safety and Health


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Scientists at Sandia/California’s Combustion Research Facility collaborate extensively with the international community, but the process to allow access for foreign scientists and visitors was time-consuming. Thus, a more public-like General Access Area (GAA) security area was established that greatly reduces the requirements for advanced notice and visit approval. In addition, a separate east side site entrance was created that maintains appropriate security for the balance of the Sandia/California site and the adjacent Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory site. (8500, 8300) ECIS

Sandia was one of eight winners out of 137 participating federal government agency sites in the FY09 Electronics Reuse and Recycling Campaign, spearheaded by the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive. The lab contributed 400,119 pounds of electronics toward a total 15.8 million pounds of electronics reused or recycled government-wide in the reuse and recycling challenge. This was the second year in a row that Sandia picked up the award in the category of large civilian facilities with more than 2,500 employees. (4100) All SMUs

The Safeguards & Security Center developed and delivered 30 classification subject matter briefings to educate the workforce in the identification and protection of classified and sensitive information. The center released the briefings to create a high-end awareness of classified elements in the mission work and reduce the potential for the inadvertent release of classified information. These online briefings are available to personnel in the Training Education & Development System (TEDS). Upon completion of a briefing, personnel are granted access to the associated classification guides. (4200) NW

The Safeguards & Security Center took a leadership role in the NNSA effort to reform security requirements. The effort aims to produce a concise, streamlined, cost-effective set of security requirements, while maintaining the appropriate protection strategy and practices commensurate with risks. In September 2010, the Physical Protection and Information Security NNSA Policy Letters (NAPs) were placed on Sandia’s contract. The new NAPs will allow Sandia to reduce complexity in compliance activities and allow management to refocus resources on mission work. (4200) NW

In 2010, Sandia developed source documents for a new Site Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) by collecting data from about 100 facilities throughout Sandia/New Mexico regarding capabilities, activities, material inventories and use, radioactive air emissions, and possible future physical or operational changes. The SWIES is the foundation of Sandia/New Mexico environmental coverage under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The current SWEIS is more than 10 years old; the update of this document will help reduce the time and effort for routine NEPA reviews and provide flexibility and maintainability for future Sandia/New Mexico operations. This massive data collection effort took a year and was delivered to DOE on time and on budget. (4100) IES

Work Planning and Control successfully completed the Verification and Validation (V&V) of the actions for the 2008 HS-64 Audit Finding. While significant progress has been made within Work Planning and Control, and the V&V showed that the corrective actions were partially effective, assessments that occurred as a result of the corrective action plan showed that many line organizations were effectively implementing work planning and control. However, there is still room for improvement in organizational work planning and control processes, hazard identification and implementation of controls, and implementation of corporate technical work document requirements along with assurance processes. (4100) IES

The U.S. EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery selected Sandia/New Mexico as recipient of the 2010 WasteWise Gold Achievement Award for Industrial Materials Reduction. (4100) IES

Built-in Network Security (BINS) is a Cyber Security-led, multi-organization project to instrument the Sandia unclassified network. This first-of-a- kind implementation is composed of next-generation customized network hardware, advanced analytical software, distributed log aggregation system, and a searching/visualization capability. BINS enables cyber situational awareness/analysis. Using BINS, cyber analysis can replay events, acquire packet capture, and search logs. This flexible system is adaptable to include evolving hardware/software tools. Partner organizations can leverage BINS to evaluate technologies and conduct analytics on a production network. (9300)  NW


Each citation is followed by the center numbers of centers that contributed most directly to the effort described. An acronym after each accomplishment indicates which of Sandia’s strategic management units (SMUs) or strategic management groups (SMGs) the work most directly supported.

The SMG/SMU acronyms are:

  • NW: Nuclear Weapons SMG & SMU
  • DS & A: Defense Systems & Assessments SMU
  • IHNS: International, Homeland, and Nuclear Security SMU
  • ECIS: Energy, Climate, and Infrastructure SMU
  • IES: Integrated Enabling Services SMU
  • SPP: Sandia Partnership Projects