The prime cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee said Tuesday it self-reported the unauthorized work done by two employees at a retired experimental reactor in February 2017, which led to a $120,000 penalty.
URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) is also taking corrective actions not just at the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) site but across its enterprise at Oak Ridge, spokeswoman Ashley Hartman said by email.
The facility was retired in the late 1960s after four years of research on the molten salt reactor concept. It has since been defueled. UCOR is responsible, under $2.7 billion contract at Oak Ridge, for ensuring the reactor site is kept safe and stable as it awaits cleanup.
But on Feb. 16, 2017, “two operators at the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment took actions without following proper work authorization or procedures,” Hartman said. “Once discovered, UCOR immediately self-reported the event to the Department of Energy (DOE) and began an internal investigation,” she added.
No injury or environmental release resulted from the incident, the agency indicated. Workers were trying to locate “boundary valves” within the reactive gas removal system area, DOE said.
The Office of Enforcement within DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments cited the monetary payment and various corrective actions that would be required by the contractor in a March 22 letter to UCOR President Kenneth Rueter. Among other things, the order requires UCOR to conduct an analysis of its nuclear and high-hazard operations, with an eye toward improving communications with DOE as well as front-line operators.
