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The Role of SLAC Citizen
Committees in ES&H
By Mike Grissom
For many years now the SLAC citizen
committees have been an integral part of environment, safety, and health
(ES&H) at SLAC. As director emeritus Burton Richter said:
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Frank O’Neill, Chair of the
Fire Protection Safety Committee (Photo by Diana Rogers) |
From the earliest days of the Laboratory,
the citizen committees have been an essential part of the SLAC safety
program and have contributed enormously to making SLAC a safe place to
work. The success of these committees arises from the fact that their
membership includes people from different areas of the Laboratory with
various technical backgrounds, bringing a broad range of perspectives
and expertise to addressing problems. I regard such committee service as
a very important part of the work of members of the SLAC staff.
These thoughts continue to resonate with
Director Jonathan Dorfan, who appoints citizen committee members. (The
terms are generally three years for members and five for chairpersons.)
Although citizen committees often deal
with routine issues, one of their major responsibilities is to ensure
new projects are completed safely and in compliance with established
requirements and standards. An outstanding example of this process was
the commissioning and delivery of the first beam at SPEAR3 in December
2003. During the more than six-month down for SPEAR in 2003, and for
some years prior to the SPEAR2 ring decommissioning and SPEAR3
commissioning, an extensive series of citizen committee reviews took
place, helping to ensure the safe and timely completion of the project.
This process of reviewing each of the
major accelerator systems, a key component of SLAC’s Integrated Safety
Management System (ISMS), will be further exercised over the next few
years as the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) moves through planning
and construction towards commissioning in 2009.
What the Committees Do
As described in the SLAC ES&H Manual,
Chapter 31, the citizen committees are expected to:
• Assist personnel in evaluating hazards
• Inspect operations and projects
• Interpret industry standards
• Recommend appropriate procedures and
policies
• Review accelerator facility procedures
and safety training programs
• Verify that design processes comply with
safety regulations
For new projects the process is
coordinated through the Safety Overview Committee (SOC), chaired by Ken
Moffeit (EA). The SOC is composed of the chairpersons of all the citizen
committees, the OSC chair and an ES&H member. For details on the
charters of citizen committees, see:
www-group.slac.stanford.edu/esh/eshmanual/ESHch31.pdf.
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| Perry Anthony, Chairperson of the
Electrical Safety Committee (Photo by Diana Rogers) |
Interacting with Committees
The designated project manager or
experiment spokesperson normally starts the process of citizen committee
review by contacting the chair of the SOC. The project manager or
principal investigator for smaller projects can contact specific citizen
committees directly, but more often this is done by the relevant ES&H
coordinator, such as Ian Evans at SSRL. John Galayda, recently appointed
associate director for the new LCLS Division, had already participated
in the review process with presentations to the SOC and specific
interactions with relevant citizen committees during the design phase of
LCLS.
Citizen Committees and Chairs
• Safety Overview Committee (SOC), Ken
Moffeit, Ext. 2772
• As Low As Reasonably Achievable
Committee (ALARA), Dieter Walz, Ext. 2786
• Earthquake Safety Committee (EqSC),
Scott DeBarger, Ext. 4647
• Electrical Safety Committee (ESC), Perry
Anthony, Ext. 4354
• Environmental Safety Committee (EnvSC),
Bill Kroutil, Ext. 4785
• Fire Protection Safety Committee (FPSC),
Frank O’Neill, Ext. 5300
• Hazardous Experimental Equipment
Committee (HEEC), John Weisend, Ext. 5448
• Hoisting and Rigging Safety Committee
(H&RSC), Dave Ernst, Ext. 8346
• Non-ionizing Radiation Safety Committee
(NIRSC), Ron Koontz, Ext. 2528
• Radiation Safety Committee (RSC), Harvey
Lynch, Ext. 3691
There are other ES&H-related committees
that are not chartered as citizen committees but are nevertheless
important parts of the SLAC ISMS program. These include the ES&H
Coordinating Council (ES&HCC), the Operating Safety Committee (OSC) and
the Local Safety Committee (LSC).
For further information on ES&H-related
committees, see:
http://www-group.slac.stanford.edu/esh/committees/
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