HANFORD -- The Department of Energy is concerned about an increase in accidents requiring medical attention and other safety-related incidents at the Hanford vitrification plant this year.
"The (vitrification plant) project has recently experienced several reportable and nonreportable events that indicate the construction site safety performance may be in jeopardy," wrote John Eschenberg, DOE manager of the vitrification plant project, in a letter to Bechtel National.
The problems "may have resulted from a fundamental breakdown in work planning, hazards identification and control, and/or a generally poor level of diligence and awareness," Eschenberg wrote.
Bechtel is redoubling its safety efforts to reverse the trend, said Ted Feigenbaum, the new Bechtel project director for the Waste Treatment Plant, or vitrification plant.
The construction project had a series of safety problems in 2004 and again in 2005, but launched efforts then that improved its safety performance. Seeing the plant's rate of safety-related incidents start to rise again has been disappointing, Feigenbaum said.
Most of the recent incidents have been caused by complacency or losing focus on safety, rather than a lack of good safety procedures or correct safety equipment for the plant's 800 construction workers, he said.
In one incident since DOE sent the letter earlier this month, parts of a tower crane and a tall mobile crane touched when one of the crane operators failed to wait for instructions from the ground to proceed, according to Bechtel.
In a case cited in the letter, a worker was using a remote control to move a scissor lift this month when he accidentally moved the lift the wrong way and it ran over his foot, breaking a bone. In another incident last month, a worker was cutting an I-beam and got pinned by one of the cut pieces but was not seriously injured.
Bechtel has stopped work by some groups of workers for short periods after some of the incidents to examine safety problems and refocus on safety.
Long term its strategy is to "get as many eyes" as possible on safety issues, Feigenbaum said.
Managers will be spending more time on the construction site with a safety check-list to observe procedures and talk with workers, he said. The managers will be working with safety professionals.
Representatives of building trades unions are expected to walk the site with supervisors and make recommendations. Bechtel also will be relying on its construction workers as it reinvigorates a program that asks the experienced workers who are most respected by other workers to observe other workers and recommend ways they can work more safely.
Bechtel also plans to bring safety experts from its other construction sites around the world to take a fresh look at safety issues at the vitrification plant.
A program Feigenbaum has used at other job sites will award gift certificates or other prizes to workers observed using safety precautions to provide positive reinforcement for the safety push.
Workers are being encouraged to maintain a mental focus on safety, follow procedures and not to rush, Feigenbaum said.
* Annette Cary: 509-582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com; More Hanford news at hanfordnews.com.