Reforming a "Mountain" of Policy

Beginning with his confirmation hearings in January 2009, Energy Secretary Steven Chu challenged the Department of Energy to take a fresh look at how we conduct business. This challenge provided the opportunity for DOE to put in place the most effective and efficient strategies to accomplish the Department's missions safely and securely.

In response to the Secretary's challenge and building on the results of Deputy Secretary Poneman's Safety and Security Reform studies, the Office of Health, Safety and Security (HSS) broadened its directives review activities during 2009. By November 2009 HSS had initiated a disciplined review of all health, safety, and security directives, which included a systematic review of the Department's safety and security regulatory model. Following the mantra of identifying and eliminating requirements that do not add value to safety or security, Deputy Secretary Poneman issued the Department's plan for safety and security reform on March 16, 2010.

Over the next 18 months, the leaders and employees of the DOE program and staff offices and the DOE sites and laboratories worked to meet the Secretary's challenge as outlined in the Deputy Secretary's plan and as detailed in the Office of Health, Safety and Security Project Plan for Safety and Security Reform. Throughout this process, all parties involved exhibited high levels of professionalism to resolve specific areas of contention enabling the reform effort to achieve meaningful results. Starting with 107 health, safety and security directives, 89 have completed the reform process (44 cancelled and 45 revised/recertified) with the remaining 18 in DOE-wide review (8 in final Directives Review Board concurrence or ready for final approval and 10 in comment resolution).

Summary Metrics on Directives Reform for the 107 HSS directives (March 2010 to December 31, 2011)

Directives Completed - 102 (49 Cancelled, 53 Revised or Re-certified)
Directives in concurrence review or ready for final approval - 5

Safety and Security Directives - Reform Cumulative Progress (January 1, 2012)

HSS Safety and Security Directives Reform - Status - December 31, 2011

Summary: HSS met its major project milestone to have 100 percent of HSS directives either complete or into concurrence review by September 30, 2011. 102 of 107 HSS directives (or 95 percent) are now complete (revised, re-certified, or cancelled) and the remaining directives are projected to be complete over the next two to three months.

Top Level Status:

HSS has completed reform efforts on 102 of 107 directives (95 percent), with 49 directives cancelled, 37 directives revised, and 16 directives re-certified.
The current number of active HSS directives is now 58, a reduction of 49 directives (or 46 percent).
The final five directives are in concurrence review and related comment resolution.

Recent Milestones Completions

Guide 421.1-2A (Implementation Guide for Use in Developing Documented Safety Analyses) was approved and issued on December 19, 2011.
Outreach continues to a wide array of stakeholders, including DOE line programs, the national laboratories, labor unions, Congress, the DNFSB, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
On December 19, 2011, the Chief Health, Safety and Security Officer sent a memo to DOE leadership (HQ, field, labs and M&Os), the ES&H managers and security directors to emphasize the importance of implementing the results of the Directives Reform to improve operational efficiency and to offer HSS assistance and training to enable change at the work level.

HSS Directives Reform - Key Milestone Status Chart (January 1, 2012)

End-State Projection of HSS directives

Projected post-reform end-state: 55 HSS directives (8 Policies, 34 Orders, and 13 Guides).
Projected Cancellations from March 2010: 52 directives cancelled or consolidated (49 percent of original scope of 107 HSS directives).

Safety and Security Directives Reform Documents