BOISE, Idaho—The U.S. Department of Energy has fined engineering companies Washington Group International and Colorado-based CH2M Hill a total of $55,000 for violating federal nuclear safety requirements at the Idaho National Laboratory after a whistleblower reported problems.
The problems in CH2M-WG Idaho’s radiological protection program potentially increased the likelihood of an accident, according to the DOE’s preliminary notice of violation, sent to the companies Thursday.
At least two people lost their jobs as a result of the violations, the companies said.
WGI, based in Boise, and Denver-based CH2M Hill, which are cleaning up waste from decades of nuclear activity at INL in eastern Idaho, were cited for several violations that emerged during a May 2006 federal inspection, including insufficient practices to control contaminated survey instruments, poor record keeping and issues with calibration and the repair of airborne radiation monitoring equipment.
The Energy Department investigated after an employee reported deficient radiation safety practices.
“Of concern in this case (were) the safety culture problems indicated by an employee’s fear of retaliation for raising safety issues and the emphasis on production over safety,” according to a DOE letter to Robert Iotti, who heads up the project for the two companies. “Also of concern was the lack of leadership by the previous management team with respect to radiological protection and inadequate emphasis on ensuring a sound technical basis for the radiological protection program.”
Amy Lientz, a spokeswoman for the cleanup operation in Idaho Falls, said the WGI-CH2M Hill consortium moved quickly to address safety shortcomings in its Accelerated Retrieval Project, in which workers retrieve buried transuranic waste, such as contaminated equipment, filters and workers’ protective clothing, that’s being shipped to a waste repository in New Mexico.
Lientz said at least “a couple” of managers were fired due to safety issues raised by the DOE during its May 2006 inspection.
She couldn’t immediately say how many managers lost their jobs.
The DOE cut the companies’ original fine in half because they quickly took corrective actions to keep similar problems from recurring, according to the federal agency.
Lientz also said CH2M-WG Idaho has assigned an “employee concerns” representative to report directly to Iotti and provided more training to supervisors and managers about addressing issues such as safety that workers may raise while at the site.
“We acknowledged right away that we had some concerns over the items that they (DOE) cited,” Lientz said. “We took immediate action.”
WGI and CH2M Hill are “required to respond to the preliminary notice of violation within 30 days and document any specific actions taken since the DOE’s investigation concluded,” DOE officials said.
WGI, currently the target of a takeover attempt by San Francisco-based URS Corp., and CH2M Hill are heading up the seven-year, $7.9-billion project to clean up material and equipment left over from decades of tests at the 890-square-mile federal nuclear research area.
