The subcontractor in charge of sinking a new utility shaft at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., needs to fix potential safety hazards, the federal agency said in a recent assessment.
While prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership and subcontractor Harrison Western-Shaft Sinkers have a “generally adequate construction safety program,” they need to address safety hazards spotted during a March onsite review by the DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments.
The report dated Thursday June 9 listed three weaknesses in the subcontractor’s safety practices and one in the management contractor’s oversight of the project.
Harrison Western-Shaft Sinkers, a joint venture of Colorado-based Harrison Western and South African-based Shaft Sinkers, had workers below an elevated welding platform that potentially “placed them at risk from dropped objects,” according to the 12-page report. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board reported a near-miss in March after a heavy hoist-chain fell.
There are also gaps in the subcontractor’s explosive safety and training program, according to the assessment office findings.
Likewise, Harrison-Western failed to show its prior blasting and mining of the shaft, which will eventually reach 2,200 feet below ground, meets American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists standards for silica, DOE said. Without proper precautions, crystalline silica or silica dust poses a respiratory risk to workers who inhale the tiny particles, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
The report said the subcontractor is setting up a silica control plan.
The DOE report also faulted management contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership because it “closed explosive inventory related issues identified in a management self-assessment without a resolution.”
“The DOE Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) appreciates the opportunities for improvement identified by the Office of Enterprise Assessments in their recent review of the Utility Shaft Project,” a spokesperson said by email Monday. “We take seriously the findings of the assessment team and our contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) is already taking actions to address the items identified in the assessment report.”
New Mexico last October agreed to let NWP resume work on the new shaft. It was suspended during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic given local infection rates were high and a six-month temporary work order had expired. A subcontractor won a $75-million deal for the construction project in August 2019. The DOE initially hoped it would be complete this year.
The agency also reviewed lower-tiered subcontracts issued by Harrison-Western Shaft Sinker for jobs such as hoisting and rigging, welding and electrical services.
The DOE’s assessment planning and document collection began in January and the onsite portion of the safety review occurred March 14-17, the report said.
