June 20, 2011

Editorials/Opinion

The Seattle Times

THE Department of Energy and a primary contractor at the Hanford nuclear reservation are not protecting worker health. The failure threatens to compromise the cleanup mission and, ultimately, protection of the public.

Such a blunt assessment did not come from a disgruntled employee or a union rep, but the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, created in the wake of past abuses.

Worker health and safety issues have been as persistent a problem at Hanford as technical delays and shredded budgets. The safety board was invented in the absence of state and federal oversight of worker safety.

The board blisters DOE and Bechtel National for "significant failures by both DOE and contractor management to implement their roles for a strong safety culture."

The focus is on the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, the vast effort to remove and stabilize high-level waste from tank farms. The report goes on to say, "The flawed safety culture currently embedded in the project has a substantial probability of jeopardizing that mission."

Report authors found a culture within DOE and Bechtel that penalizes those whose

complaints and concerns might compromise timelines and budgets.

The nuclear experts convened as the safety board are doing exactly what their task was designed to do: pay attention when no one else will listen.

Hanford is dealing with the nuclear refuse of building the nation's first atomic bombs. Workers doing that dangerous, necessary chore deserve fundamental protection of their health.

Efforts to reduce the hazards of that task have been a struggle for decades. Recommendations from the safety board might finally turn a corner of worker safety. For starters, someone is paying attention.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2015352872_edit20hanford.html