Fire, spill putting DOE in hot seat

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

We've had a couple of "incidents" here in Oak Ridge lately.  Both raise 

questions about conduct of operations, and ultimately safety.  The 

dripping of Sr-90 contaminated liquid is a concern not just about 

inadequete containment of waste during transport, but in that there 

should be no free liquid in waste destined for our local mixed LLW 

landfill, that being a clear violation of the waste acceptance criteria.



By the way, the chemical fire was a DOE subcontractor that was 

attempting to melt 11,000 lb of sodium for recycling.  "Somehow" water 

leaked in.  Although doing work for Oak Ridge National Lab (the Office 

of Science, not Environmental Management, EM), the company was working 

on leased space in East Tennessee Technology Park.  DOE HQ has 

differentiated their responsibility (as delgated to its EM contractor) 

for reporting emergencies caused by EM (sub)contractors as opposed to 

those caused by site tenants and/or their subcontractors (as in this 

case).  My organization is going to have a long look at the emergency 

reporting and response associated with that incident, as the potential 

for offsite release caused evacuation of a significant number of local 

residents.



--Susan Gawarecki

Executive Director,

ORR Local Oversight Committee



Fire, spill putting DOE in hot seat

State asks if deadline pressures, cost cutting caused emergencies



By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com



URL: 

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_2893897,00.html



OAK RIDGE - After two environmental emergencies within a week, the U.S. 

Department of Energy is facing tough questions about its 

rush-to-completion cleanup program and its protection of the public.



Authorities were forced to close public roads on consecutive weekends 

because of chemical or radiological threats associated with 

DOE-sponsored cleanup projects.



A May 8 chemical fire near the former K-25 plant prompted the closure of 

state Highway 58 and the evacuation of local residents for about 24 

hours. This past weekend, a stretch of Highway 95 was shut down so 

workers could remove radioactive contamination that leaked onto the road 

from a truck hauling nuclear waste to a nearby landfill.



Investigations are under way in both cases.



John Owsley, the state's environmental oversight chief in Oak Ridge, 

said he believes the public is being adequately protected. He said 

emergency response in both recent cases was effective.



However, Owsley said the state wants to know if federal pressure to 

speed up cleanup projects is contributing to more mishaps.



"The fact that DOE and its contractors are attempting to accelerate the 

amount of work they can do in a particular amount of time is a concern 

to us," he said. "We intend to follow up on that. We don't know that's 

what caused the problem, but we intend to make sure that it didn't or, 

if it did, to ensure that it does not occur again."



DOE revised its strategy last year and compacted the cleanup schedule, 

promising that an accelerated timetable would save millions of taxpayer 

dollars and reduce long-term risks to the public and workers.



Many Oak Ridge projects are to be completed by late 2008, and there is 

pressure on companies to meet those deadlines and to minimize costs.



Susan Gawarecki, staff director of the Local Oversight Committee, which 

represents local governments on environmental issues, said rushing 

cleanup can pose problems, even when contractors place great emphasis on 

safety.



"If you're going to ask people to do more with less resources, then 

they're going to cut corners somewhere," Gawarecki said. "These recent 

incidents may be sheer bad luck and coincidence, but ultimately, when 

you're pushing hard, you're going to find engineering failures."



Gerald Boyd, DOE's Oak Ridge chief, said he doesn't know the root cause 

of the chemical fire, which involved the processing of sodium metal, or 

the leaking radioactive waste on public roadways.



"I think both of them could have been prevented, quite frankly," Boyd said.



But the DOE chief refused to blame the agency's accelerated cleanup plan 

or rising pressure for contractors to cut costs and meet deadlines.



"I guarantee you I'm working very hard to try to determine the causes of 

these incidents, but I would not equate them with accelerated cleanup," 

he said. "I don't think it's the cause."



Paul Clay, general manager of Bechtel Jacobs Co., also doubted that 

tighter schedules were to blame. Generally, safety statistics have 

improved since DOE's accelerated cleanup plan went into effect, he said.



The back-to-back problems drew broad media attention in the region, and 

DOE and its contractors got an earful from area residents.



Special phone lines were set up for citizens to call with questions or 

concerns, and Steven Wyatt, communications chief at DOE's Oak Ridge 

office, said about 1,000 calls were received over the two weekends. More 

than 80 people asked to have their cars surveyed for radioactivity to 

make sure they didn't pick up contamination driving through the area, 

Wyatt said.



Boyd said some aspects of the incidents disturbed him. For instance, 

subcontractors reportedly were aware that there was a midweek problem 

with radioactive liquids on the truck bound for the landfill, but the 

truck was cleared Friday after it passed several inspections. When it 

arrived at the landfill, inspectors found hot spots on the truck's tailgate.



"That is troubling to me because some things were identified earlier," 

Boyd said.



There also were questions about how quickly the road contamination 

problem was communicated to employees at ORNL and the public.



Boyd and Clay emphasized that these incidents are extremely rare 

considering the amount and complexity of the cleanup work done at the 

government's Oak Ridge facilities.



"We've made thousands of shipments (of waste) around the reservation and 

across the country with very, very few incidents," Clay said.



Oak Ridge Mayor David Bradshaw drafted a letter Monday that was 

supportive of the federal agency. He urged DOE not to let current issues 

derail the aggressive cleanup effort in Oak Ridge.



"We would not want this isolated incident to slow the pace or to place 

current (cleanup) efforts on hold," Bradshaw wrote in his letter to 

Boyd. "We have faith in the DOE and contractor leadership team in Oak 

Ridge."







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