Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
3/07/2014
The Senate Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight is set to hold a hearing early next week on the safety culture at Hanford and whether workers there can raise safety concerns without fear of retaliation. The hearing appears to have been prompted by the recent decision of URS, a major subcontractor at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, to terminate Donna Busche, who served as a key nuclear safety manager and who has alleged she has faced retaliation for raising issues. To date, URS has largely declined to say why it terminated Busche, but both URS and WTP contractor Bechtel National have repeatedly denied she was retaliated against for raising concerns.
Among those who have been asked to provide testimony for next week’s hearing are Kevin Smith, head of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection; and DOE Chief Health, Safety and Security Officer Glenn Podonsky. The two DOE officials have been asked to provide information on topics such as the processes by which federal and contractor employees may raise safety concerns, and what role, if any, the Department had in Busche’s termination. DOE has said it was not given advance notice of URS’ decision to terminate Busche, and that it was not asked to approve the move. The subcommittee has also invited Craig Albert, President, Government Services at Bechtel National; and James Taylor, the new head of URS’ Global Management and Operations Services unit, to testify at the hearing. Bechtel National has also said it played no role in Busche’s termination.
In a written response to WC Monitor this week, Busche said she was “relieved” that lawmakers are looking into her termination. “Although the issue is personal to me, I hope that the hearing addresses the underlying issues plaguing the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant,” she said. “The failures of Bechtel National Inc. and URS Corporation to identify and resolve safety, technical and quality issues while providing incomplete and misleading information to the Department of Energy must be addressed. WTP is a key element of the stabilization of Hanford tank wastes that needs to be designed and operated to the highest safety and quality standards to prevent future generations of additional cleanup.” URS declined to comment this week.
‘Meaningful Penalties’ Needed, Watchdog Group Says
Tom Carpenter, executive director of the watchdog group Hanford Challenge, said this week that he hopes the hearing will lead to lawmakers proposing significant actions to help ensure workers can raise concerns without fear. “This means conditioning DOE’s budget at Hanford based upon demonstrable progress towards improving the safety culture, having GAO or some other entity investigate, monitor and report back to Congress, passing legislation to give whistleblowers a timely and effective cause ofaction and requiring DOE to address and respond to complaints of reprisal, or removing and replacing DOE at Hanford,” Carpenter said in a written response. “Protecting the ability of employees to raise safety issues at nuclear facilities is integral to safety of the public and workers. DOE does not get that message. We cannot risk a nuclear catastrophe at Hanford because workers are too afraid to raise an issue that could prevent that disaster.” He added, “Without meaningful penalties against contractors who retaliate (and against DOE officials when they retaliate), it seems unlikely that things will change.”