DOE SUBMITS PLAN TO IMPROVE VIT PLANT SAFETY CULTURE

The Department of Energy will look at better managing its Hanford Waste Treatment Plant contract to balance the demands of cost and schedule with a strong safety culture, according to DOE’s implementation plan for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board’s safety culture recommendations, which was submitted to the Board Dec. 27. The plan goes beyond Hanford to include other DOE sites and commits to about 25 deliverables. In addition, it covers underlying causes that led to the defense board concerns, and it indicated Energy Secretary Steven Chu could visit Hanford to make clear his safety culture expectations. Safety culture became an issue after Walter Tamosaitis, the former research and technology manager at the plant, alleged he was removed from the project in summer 2010 for raising technical concerns about nuclear safety of plant operations. However, Bechtel National and its subcontractor, URS, deny that, saying his work assignment was completed and he wrote a disrespectful email. The defense board investigated the safety culture at the plant, concluding in June 2011 that management suppressed dissent on technical issues and that there was a “chilled atmosphere adverse to safety.”

DOE’s response team for the defense board recommendations agreed that some technical staff at the Hanford vitrification plant hesitate to raise safety or technical concerns that might affect schedule or cost, according to the DOE implementation plan. They believe their managers may not support them or they find the resolution process is too difficult or too lengthy, it said. Some staff also believe the Employee Concerns Program is ineffective and that management actions in implementing the program have reduced its value and credibility, the plan said. “There is a need to do a better job of converting high level policy expectations for a strong safety culture into detailed guidance for implementation of those expectations,” the plan said. DOE and Bechtel already have taken steps to strengthen the safety culture at the plant, according to the plan, which outlined additional steps DOE will take to comply with specific defense board recommendations. DOE will revise the Bechtel contract performance evaluation plan and project performance measures to achieve balanced priorities and include safety culture elements, as part of its work to meet the safety board recommendation to “assert federal control at the highest level” over the plant’s safety culture.