More than half of the Department of Energy’s 11,000-member workforce at the Hanford Site are back inside the fence, a Department of Energy official said Wednesday.
Hanford is bringing 190 additional workers back onsite this week, Erik Olds, DOE’s deputy integration manager for direct-feed low-activity waste, told the Hanford Advisory Board during an online meeting. That brings the current number of federal and contract workers physically at the site to 6,000.
“That is a bit of a milestone,” Olds said, adding there are now more staffers on-site than telecommuting.
Some people will, however, continue to telework for the foreseeable future, he added.
On Aug. 31, remediation work at the former plutonium production complex advanced from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s remobilization program to gradually restore operations to pre-COVID-19 operating levels. The process started with planning and preparation, known as Phase 0. Phase 1 entails bringing back only key employees and those whose work requires little in the way of personnel protective equipment. Phase 2 adds people whose jobs can require moderate levels of protective gear.
The ultimate goal is reaching Phase 3 where on-site staffing is nearly equal to pre-pandemic levels.
Olds said the site might ultimately bring back up to 85% of its people on-site before advancing to Phase 3.
Advancing from one level to another hinges on how things are going at the site, availability of protective equipment, coronavirus infection rates in the region and relevant local, state and federal orders on COVID-19.
Even with bringing more people back to work, progress is sometimes slow, given that some work has to occur sequentially rather than at the same time. This is to lessen the proximity of staffers to each other and reduce the number of in-person interactions, Olds said.
