THE PATS OCCURRENCE REPORTING SYSTEM

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Order 5000.3B calls for the establishment and maintenance of a database for all unclassified occurrence reports (ORs). ORs provide DOE with, notice of incidents or accidents that endanger the public, workers, or DOE facility operations. To fulfill this policy, the DOE Occurrence Reporting and Processing System (ORPS) was established to require DOE facilities to report and process information concerning such events. Through its Packaging and Transportation Safety (PATS) Program the Oak Ridge National Laboratory provides DOE with an evaluation program for occurrences related to packaging and transportation safety. The PATS Occurrence Reporting program produces five products: (1) weekly summaries of occurrences; (2) quarterly reports, (3) annual reports; (4) lessons-learned bulletins; and (5) updates to the Technical Information System bulletin, an information service available through Internet. The reports and analysis provided by this program can be used as a tool for oversight and a means lor DOE sites to be proactive and anticipate problems through shared knowledge and \"lessons-learned.\" To illustrate, some observable trends based on 2 years of reporting are given. In summary, this program shows trends that need correction, program deficiencies, potential problem areas and possible breakdown of quality assurance and safety.