Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
4/24/2015
Local officials in Carlsbad, N.M., are backing the choice of Phil Breidenbach as the next head of Nuclear Waste Partnership, the managing contractor for the nearby Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, but have also raised concern about the recent spate of management turnover at WIPP. Breidenbach will take over in the near future for NWP President Bob McQuinn, and most recently served as the Idaho National Laboratory Director of Nuclear Operations at the Materials and Fuels Complex. This week, he met with Carlsbad officials after recent questions about his link to a previous contamination incident at INL. “On the face of it, he’s had a lot of experience. He was very open, very honest and very sincere. We are just going to try to support him and take him at face value. His performance will tell the story,” John Heaton, chair of the Carlsbad Mayor’s Nuclear Task Force, told WC Monitor this week.
Last week, Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) raised concern about Breidenbach’s role in an event at INL, where he managed work at the Zero Power Physics Reactor at the time of a November 2011 incident that exposed 16 workers to plutonium. Pearce said the issue was not mentioned in a briefing with contractor officials, and could be problematic following WIPP’s 2014 radiological release. The Department of Energy this week did not respond to requests for comment on Breidenbach’s appointment and whether they were aware of his role in the INL event before approving him to lead NWP.
Breidenbach was only on the job for a few months when the INL event occurred, and Idaho officials have credited his work there as key to the facility’s recovery from the events. This week, Breidenbach briefed local officials on his role in the event and his work during the recovery at INL. “We felt like he was very sincere in what he told us and expressed regrets that it had happened, no question,” Heaton said, adding that Breidenbach noted the facility had long been suffering from safety culture issues, which had improved during his tenure. “That’s a very positive thing,” he said.
Management Turnover a Concern
However, Heaton raised the larger question of management turnover at WIPP. McQuinn is leaving after coming to the post a year ago in response to the February 2014 incidents at WIPP, which also included a truck fire. Earlier this month, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Joe Franco announced that he would be stepping down from his post to take a senior management position at DOE’s Richland Operations Office. “Here we are in the midst of the recovery and getting through the critical decision making process with capital expenditures,” Heaton said. “Losing people who are the leaders, whether it is DOE or the contractor is frankly very disturbing to me because I think there is a loss of continuity when that occurs.”
