DOE Plans to Conduct New Assessment at Hanford This Winter
Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
10/31/2014
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla.—While the Department of Energy currently plans to conduct a new safety culture assessment at Hanford this winter and has warned of consequences if that review does not show improvement, top DOE and contractor officials at the site said here last week that it could take years before significant improvements are seen. "Having taught management and having taught leadership, I would say culture typically takes seven years,” Kevin Smith, head of the DOE Office of River Protection, said at the 2014 Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers Forum. “Now there are significant emotional events you can use to accelerate that. And as our folks start to see greater and greater success on our programs, both on the tanks farms and the WTP [Waste Treatment Plant] sides, it should lend to the landscape for that. But I think it’s going to take a couple of years to get there.”
The safety culture at Hanford and the Waste Treatment Plant project have been under heavy scrutiny in recent years. In 2011, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board issued a formal recommendation on the topic, warning of a “flawed” culture that could threaten the successful completion of the vit plant. In early 2012, DOE released the results of a review it performed of the safety culture at the WTP, finding significant concerns among both federal and contractor employees. Earlier this year, the Department issued the results of a follow-on assessment of the safety culture at the WTP that found that despite years of efforts by both the Office of River Protection and contractors, there was a “lack of significant measurable change” in employee perceptions.
Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz announced DOE’s plans for the latest safety culture review at Hanford at a DNFSB meeting held in Washington earlier this month. DOE’s plans to conduct a new assessment at the WTP sends “a strong message” to both the federal and contractor organizations about the importance of safety culture,” Moniz told the Board, adding, “If there is not improvement at this one-year review, there will be a more stern message, to be perfectly honest.”
‘We’re Going to Keep Working This’
At last week’s conference, Smith and top executives with WTP contractor Bechtel National and Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions outlined various efforts that have been taken to help improve the safety culture at Hanford. Concerning federal employees, Smith noted the “Grand Challenge” process he has implemented to help solicit ideas from site employees on how to achieve substantial cost savings at the WTP, as well as an “open door” policy and increased training for managers. “I would say that when you look at the root causes of the safety culture issue, it was not necessarily that people couldn’t get their voices heard—we haven’t got very bashful people in our community—but they didn’t see the technical issues and the issues they were bringing up getting resolved,” Smith said. “So we have fundamentally changed the way those get resolved. He added, “We’re going to keep working this until every employee at the root level at the job site feels they are part of the program and has a voice.”
Bechtel National WTP Project Director Peggy McCullough said her organization has issued a new quality policy and a new issue resolutions policy, as well as made “significant upgrades” to its corrective action system, among other actions. “I actually feel very good about the self-identification culture at WTP,” she said. “Our self-identification rates are typically in the 80 percent. So the employees on the job are finding issues and they’re comfortable putting them into the system. It’s how we respond to it and how quickly we’re able to respond to it, given the seriousness of the issue and the urgency relative to a plant that’s, in some cases, 70 percent constructed.” McCullough added, “I would say the whole thing is underpinned on transparency. … We do need some time to demonstrate that these measures are working.”
