The Jacobs-led cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, along with a subcontractor, are being investigated for a January incident where a worker was exposed to “potentially dangerous levels of carbon monoxide,” according to DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments.
The exposure happened Jan. 10 during testing of a gasoline-powered welder generator inside the Naval Reactor Facility high bay, the Office of Enterprise Assessments said in a letter last week to Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition.
The high bay areas “recreate important environments and allow us to reduce the cost of research and development,” according to the Naval Research Laboratory website. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website describes carbon monoxide as an odorless, colorless gas that can prove deadly.
“Following the incident, IEC management and personnel completed a fact-finding investigation and immediately put corrective actions in place,” a spokesperson for Idaho Environmental Coalition said in a Thursday email to Exchange Monitor. “Once initial corrective actions were implemented, work resumed in the high bay. We fully support the investigation and will provide anything the investigators need to complete their important work,” the spokesperson said.
The investigation will include onsite or virtual interviews with contractor staff, Anthony Pierpoint, the director of the Office of Enforcement within Enterprise Assessments, said in a May 23 letter to Ty Blackford. Blackford is president and project manager for the Idaho Environmental Coalition.
In addition, contractor American Equipment, Inc. is also being investigated, in connection with the same incident, Pierpoint said in a May 23 letter to the president of that company, Adam Zimmerman. The letters are officially known by the agency as “notices of intent to investigate.”
The companies are being scrutinized for potential deficiencies in implementation of DOE’s Worker Safety and Health Program requirements at the Idaho Cleanup Project, the assessments office said in a May 25 notice.
The Coalition, made up of partners Jacobs and North Wind Portage, holds a $6.4-billion contract that started in October 2021 and is scheduled to run through Sept. 30, 2031. The Idaho environmental prime also includes subcontractors Spectra Tech, Navarro and Oak Ridge Technologies.
Idaho Environmental Coalition reported the potential overexposure to DOE’s Occurrence Reporting and Processing System on Jan. 16, and into the Noncompliance Tracking System on Jan. 24, the Enterprise Assessments office said in both letters.
