DOE CITES LATA KENTUCKY FOR SAFETY VIOLATIONS AT PADUCAH CLEANUP

The Department of Energy late last week cited Paducah cleanup contractor LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky for violations of DOE worker safety and health and nuclear safety regulations. The violations were tied to two incidents that occurred last year—a March 9, 2011, heat stress event during which an employee lost consciousness; and a May 22, 2011, event resulting in the release of uranium hexafluoride and its reaction products during decommissioning work. “DOE considers both incidents to be near misses to serious worker injury or death, and the associated violations to be collectively of high safety significance. The events revealed multiple breakdowns in implementation of worker safety and health and nuclear safety requirements,” says the preliminary notice of violation issued by DOE’s Office of Enforcement and Oversight.

DOE cited LATA Kentucky with four Severity Level 1 violations of Department worker safety and health requirements, as well as two Severity Level 2 violations and one Severity Level 3 violation of nuclear safety requirements. The preliminary notice of violation does not include any financial penalty against LATA Kentucky for the violations, instead referencing a fee reduction of $250,000 the contractor incurred in its Fiscal Year 2011 fee determination. “DOE has determined that the contract fee reduction incorporated the nuclear safety violations, and therefore is exercising discretion in not proposing a civil penalty for the identified nuclear safety violations. DOE acknowledges LATA KY’s post-incident measures to improve its worker safety and health and nuclear safety programs and develop corrective action plans to further address the issues identified,” the preliminary notice of violation says. To read the full preliminary notice of violation, please click here.