A subcontractor at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) broke a finger June 15 while performing routine maintenance on a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system at the lab’s Energy Innovation Laboratory, an Energy Department spokesperson at the Idaho Falls facility said Monday.
It was the second work accident involving a worker’s hand at Idaho in June — a DOE employee on June 6 lost part of a finger after a drill-related accident during maintenance of the Advanced Test Reactor — and it prompted a swift, site-wide response by DOE officials, who suspended maintenance and construction work across the facility for about half a day to brief workers on the accident and assess whether similar hazards might exist at other work sites.
The worker injured June 15 has since been cleared to return to the job. The worker broke his finger after the digit got trapped between a belt and pulley driven by a fan in the ventilation system, said Edward Anderson, deputy director of facilities and site services at INL.
According to Anderson, the worker powered down the fan, verified it had stopped, but became entangled in the works anyway after a draft spun the idle fan and yanked the worker’s hand into the space between the pulley and the belt.
“He reversed the belt himself and freed his hand,” Anderson said. Afterward, the worker and a colleague notified their foreman about the accident and called 911. The worker was taken to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. “I followed that ambulance to the ER and spent time in the ER with him and his father,” Anderson said.
Idaho National Laboratory construction and maintenance projects employ about 500 workers, Anderson said, divided about evenly between subcontractors and INL prime Battelle Energy Alliance. The expansive complex, covering 890 square miles, includes experimental reactors and extensive waste treatment facilities.
Battelle Energy Alliance is wholly owned by Battelle, with junior partners BWXT, URS Corp., Electric Power Research Institute, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other university partners.
INL’s construction budget runs about $150 million to $200 million a year, according to Anderson.
Todd Wright has been promoted to general manager and executive vice president of AECOM’s Nuclear and Environment Strategic Business Unit effective immediately, the Los Angeles-based construction and engineering giant announced Wednesday.
Wright, previously director of the Energy Department’s Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina and managing director of the Sellafield site in the United Kingdom,will oversee the AECOM group’s day-to-day operations, strategic initiatives, and business development activities, according to a company press release. Wright since 2014 has been vice president for operations for the Nuclear and Environment Strategic Business Unit, managing AECOM’s work with DOE.
“Dr. Wright’s experience with the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is unparalleled and strengthens our operations with both customers,”Randy Wotring, president of AECOM’s management services group, said in the release. “This appointment is expected to position us for growth in the nuclear market, building upon his experience at both Sellafield Ltd and the Savannah River National Laboratory.”
Wright’s predecessor, James Taylor, resigned in March, an AECOM spokesperson said in a Wednesday email.
AECOM is a major player in nuclear cleanup and facility management contracts for DOE and the agency’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. The company is a partner in the consortiums that manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Nevada National Security Site. AECOM also leads the groups of companies that provide liquid waste remediation at the Savannah River Site and transuranic waste storage at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
