Two significant issues in nuc facility in same week

DEFENSE NUCLEAR FACILITIES SAFETY BOARD
August 24, 2018 
SUBJECT: Los Alamos Activity Report for Week Ending August 24, 2018
MEMORANDUM FOR: Christopher J. Roscetti, Technical Director 
FROM: J.W. Plaue and D. Gutowski, Resident Inspectors

Plutonium Facility–Infrastructure: On Saturday, a worker replacing degraded braided wire cable for a glovebox door counterbalance received a skin contamination due to a glovebox glove breach. The skin was not damaged and was successfully decontaminated. There is a substantial effort to replace these cables in plutonium-238 gloveboxes; one cable failed during use earlier this year. The sharps review process had not been used for this work package. During recent construction activities, workers received permission to cut a lock on a position controller for the Zone 1 ventilation system because the key could not be found. Following a cut, they accidentally dropped the bolt cutters, which impacted a glovebox window. The window cracked, but contamination surveys indicated it was not breached. Workers replaced the window later in the day.