BWXT-led Hanford waste prime takes week-long safety break

Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure (H2C), the BWX Technologies-led liquid waste prime, suspended work for a week due to safety concerns at the former plutonium production site at Richland, Wash.

“H2C initiated a week-long safety stand down, pausing non-essential operations and holding all-hands meetings with its workforce, including management, to discuss the recent spike in events potentially affecting safety,” according to a recent report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).

The report for the week ended July 25 was posted recently on the DNFSB website. Work resumed July 28, according to the contractor.

Earlier, “H2C management initiated a common cause analysis of over two dozen recent events during which contractor personnel did not have the necessary qualifications or training to perform work,” according to a DNFSB report from July 18.

The safety stand down occurred at around the same time DOE announced Hanford received a 75-day delay, until Oct. 15, to start making glass from some of the less radioactive glass at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at Hanford.

“Participants in the common cause analysis sessions noted that the paper qualification card process, last-minute changes to work crew composition, and lack of awareness of certain qualification requirements were some of the most common contributing causes,” according to the July 18 DNFSB report. “The resident inspector noted that participants were candid about past difficulties with existing processes and eager to use this effort to reduce potential error traps, such as developing more powerful automated means of verifying training and qualification,” according to DNFSB.

There was “one significant injury” among the issues that led H2C to pause much of its operations, the chief operations officer Phil Breidenbach said in a July 17 staff memo. “Next week, we will spend time discussing what went wrong, why it went wrong, and resetting expectations on procedure,” Breidenbach added.

The injury was a broken knee due to a fall, a Hanford Site manager said during a Hanford advisory board meeting Wednesday. 

The company held mandatory meetings for both managers and employees during the safety pause.

“Today, we begin a new week at H2C, with what I expect is a different mindset following last week’s safety stand-down,” said H2C President & Program Manager Carol Johnson in a memo. “I appreciate everyone’s attendance and engagement, and I hope the team brainstorming sessions were helpful.” 

H2C assumed control of the 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive and chemical waste, left over from decades of plutonium production, in February. The H2C team, which includes BWXT, Amentum and Fluor, has a contract worth up to $45 billion over 10 years.