Publications

The most complex challenges facing the world today comprise the work of [Department of Energy’s] (DOE’s) 17 National Laboratories: [...] From furthering U.S. energy independence and leadership in clean technologies; to promoting innovation that advances U.S. economic competitiveness; to conducting research of the highest caliber in the physical, chemical, biological, materials, computational, and information sciences to advance understanding of the world around us-the Laboratories’ purview is expansive and further their contributions are indispensable.

Purpose: To remind personnel of potential power strip electrical hazards at the office and home Before you reach for that power strip, read this! This Lessons Learned Snapshot highlights the very real potential for electrical contact with power strip usage. It happens more often than you might think! But there are ways to reduce this potential.

Sandia National Laboratories has experienced a number of electrical events in recent years. A careful examination of data shows that for the third year in a row, two of the three most frequently categorized Occurrence Reporting and Processing System (ORPS)-reportable event types were unexpected or unintended personal contact with a hazardous energy source and a failure to follow a prescribed hazardous energy control process, as defined in the occurrence reporting criteria of DOE Order 232.2A, Occurrence Reporting and Processing of Operations Information, 2D(1) and 2D(2). Sandia policy CA001.2, Identify and Manage Issues, requires an extent-of-condition review for any high-level reportable occurrence, and the analysts were tasked to perform this EOC in light of high-level reportable occurrence NA-SS-SNL-1000-2019- 0007, Contact with Electrical Energy During Marx Capacitor Troubleshooting. This extent of condition not only evaluated the 10 reportable electrical occurrences for Fiscal Year 2019, but also looked at 11 other related events: those involving control of hazardous energy and electrical events associated with less than hazardous energy.1 This Extent-of-Condition report makes several observations, conclusions, and recommendations for improvement.

This lessons learned snapshot covers the topic of traffic safety around the Sandia campus.

Due to a number of recent events where access control into or out of a hazardous area or operation was a factor, the Environment, Safety, and Health (ES&H) director requested a review of access control events occurring at Sandia National Laboratories from 2015 to January 2019. The purpose of the review was to determine the extent of access control as an ES&H issue, draw preliminary conclusions from the data, and identify recommendations for improvement, if appropriate. Using the Occurrence Reporting and Processing System (ORPS) database, nine events from 2015 through January 2019 were identified as situations involving access control of personnel into or out of a hazardous area or operation. Supplemental records from the Assurance Information System (AIS) database and the occurrence management team's repository in Electronic Integrated Management System (EIMS) were sought to confirm this dataset of access control events and to gather details concerning the causal factors associated with each event.