National Security Technologies officials are working to improve the safety culture at the Nevada National Security Site after being prompted to shape up in a recent letter from Nevada Field Office Manager Steve Lawrence. The NNSA hasn’t released the letter from Lawrence, but it was prompted by a series of incidents, including a June 13 chemical explosion involving a drum of isopropyl alcohol that injured one employee.
Part of that change included naming Jim Holt VP for Operations this summer and tapping former NNSA headquarters official Chris Deeney as VP for Programs. “We have looked across the board,” Holt told NS&D Monitor. “We’re looking at how do we shift the culture where people seem to not want to raise questions and stop work when they have issues. They want to just find a way to get the work done.”
Holt said that attitude has been in place for decades at the site, dating to its time as the main nuclear testing site for the United States. “This was always known as a site that you could come out here and get work done and we’re shifting that,” he said. “We’re saying we’re only going to get it done in an appropriate fashion. This is not a place where you can just come out and do things because you want to. We really do have to follow the formality of our operations. That’s everything from the nuclear work to high hazard operations to low hazard—it doesn’t matter. That’s across the board.”