The Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) is investigating Bechtel National, prime contractor for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, over a worker injury in November.
The office did not describe the details or circumstances of the injury, except to say it occurred “during preparation of a plant cooling water piping system for pressure testing at the Hanford Site on November 4, 2016.”
A Bechtel spokesperson wrote in an email Wednesday that the worker was “knocked backward and to the ground by a powerful stream of water when one of the pipes being tested slipped from its connection.”
Bechtel reported the injury to DOE Nov. 8, according to a notice of intent to investigate from Steven Simonson, director of the EA Office of Enforcement, to Peggy McCollough, Bechtel’s project director for the Waste Treatment Plant.
The investigation will cover “potential worker safety and health noncompliances,” according to an announcement from the Enterprise Assessments office. It will include an on-site visit and interviews with Bechtel National employees, Simonson said.
“The safety of our workforce, the public and environment is a core value at the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization plant,” Bechtel wrote in a prepared statement to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. “After the injury occurred, we immediately paused similar pipe pressure testing activities and identified corrective actions to prevent reoccurrence. We self-reported the injury to the Department of Energy and will fully cooperate with the DOE Office of Enforcement.”
The Enterprise Assessments office’s notice of intent was dated April 13; DOE did not publish the document online until this week. It is the first document the office the office has published during the Donald Trump administration. The office uploaded a slew of documents to its website on Jan. 19, then went publicly dormant after Inauguration Day one day later.
