An Approach to Documenting Vulnerability Assessments

For the past several years, significant effort has been expended by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its contractors to prepare Site Safeguards and Security Plans (SSSP) and Master Safeguards and Security Agreements (MSSA). The analytical process called vulnerability assessment (VA) is fundamental to the development of these documents. To provide credibility among contractor, DOE Field Office, and DOE-Headquarters (DOE-HQ) staff, the VA process and its associated documentation must be formal and structured. Because VA guidance materials and training opportunities have been minimal, site contractors have designed and implemented VAs according to their local interpretations of needs. As a result, VAs have been noticeably lacking in formality and uniformity. The DOE, Albuquerque Field Office, has developed an annotated VA outline for use by its contractors. This outline will (1) promote consistency in VA scope, performance, and reporting and (2) provide a complete, more traceable basis for SSSPs and MSSAs when they are validated by the Field Office and verified by DOE-HQ. This annotated outline suggests form and content for text, tables, and figures for VAs associated with a broad range of facility types and functions.