Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
10/17/2014
An EnergySolutions worker died this week after suffering a fall of approximately 25 feet at the company’s Erwin, Tenn., facility. The worker was identified as Gary Reedy, 51. EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker said Reedy had been employed at the facility for “a couple of years.” Walker also emphasized that the worker’s death was not tied to radioactive material at the facility, which EnergySolutions bought from Studsvik earlier this year. The incident is still under investigation, Walker told RW Monitor this week, adding that Tennessee OSHA and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation had been notified of the accident. “Immediately following the accident standard emergency procedures were activated to expedite medical care,” Walker said in a statement. “EnergySolutions expresses its deepest sympathy and regret to family members and loved ones of our employee.”
Walker also said that EnergySolutions has voluntarily closed the facility as it conducts its own investigation. “EnergySolutions will complete its’ own investigation separate from TOSHA and TDEC,” Walker said. “We voluntarily suspended operations and have not determined when operation of the facility will restart. The investigations continue with no additional information available at this time.”
TOSHA and TDEC Open Investigations
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA) have both opened investigations into the incident to see if any safety violations were the cause of the death. Both investigations are underway, and findings are unlikely to be released for at least 6 to 8 weeks, TOSHA spokesman Jeff Hentschel said. “It’s really too early to comment,” Hentschel said. “OSHA does not release any details about the investigations until they are complete. They were on site this week, and we will continue to visit the site in the coming weeks to determine what happened. Of course, we are looking for safety standards violations as the target to piece together exactly what happened.”
Due to the facilities radiological materials handling license, TDEC will also complete an investigation. “Since Erwin Resin Solutions, owned by EnergySolutions, is a licensee of TDEC to handle radiological materials, we are beginning an investigation into the occurrence [this week],” TDEC spokesperson Kelly Brockman said. “TDEC’s focus during the investigation will be on radiation safety aspects of what happened. At this point, it is too early to speculate as to whether any enforcement action will be levied against the facility. TDEC staff communicated several times throughout the day with the safety officer at the facility, as well as hospital, to ensure that all safety precautions were in place. As far as other employees at the site, it is our understanding that all were surveyed for contamination and were found free of contamination prior to being released from the scene.”
