Hanford cleanup group facing fines
YAKIMA – CH2M Hill Hanford Group, a contractor hired to help clean up the highly contaminated Hanford nuclear reservation, will be fined $82,500 for violating nuclear safety requirements, the Department of Energy announced Friday.
CH2M Hill is the primary contractor responsible for retrieving hazardous and radioactive waste from 177 underground tanks at the site.
The preliminary notice issued Friday cited a series of violations associated with two separate events during which employees were contaminated with radioactivity.
On Sept. 21, 2005, when workers were removing equipment used to retrieve waste from one of the tanks, they were contaminated with highly radioactive waste while disconnecting a pressurized hose that was contaminated inside. Workers again were contaminated on March 6, while removing a camera from a catch tank.
None of the contaminated employees exceeded regulatory exposure limits, the Energy Department said in a statement.
“The proposed civil penalty of $82,500 is based on the overall significance of the violations and reflects mitigation granted by the department for prompt, corrective actions taken by (CH2M Hill) to prevent recurrence,” the statement said.
The company must respond to the notice within 30 days.
CH2M Hill voluntarily reported the events and took corrective action, leading the Energy Department to reduce the proposed penalty by 50 percent, said Mark Spears, company president and chief executive officer.
Among the corrective actions: CH2M Hill improved work processes, added new training for managers and support personnel and improved emergency response planning.
“Our goal is to maintain the highest standards of safety performance. The events cited in the enforcement action clearly fell below the mark,” Spears said. “We partnered with our work force to improve our processes and the dramatic improvement in our safety and compliance performance over the past year is testament to the effectiveness of these actions and the quality of our workers.”