Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
10/16/2015
National Security Technologies (NSTec), the contractor that manages and operates the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) and the Remote Sensing Laboratory, faces chemical workplace hazard identification challenges, the Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said in an enforcement letter released last week. The letter cites "an incident involving a worker exposure to n-propyl bromide" in February at the Remote Sensing Laboratory at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada that "suggests a lack of management attention to the hazards of chemical products entering the workplace." The letter notes NSTec “did not consider necessary precautions” for personnel involved in the “quantitative exposure sampling” that caused the incident, and did not adequately “verify that the work area was safe for resuming normal operations” after the sampling campaign was completed.
NSTec also "did not assess worker exposure to chemical workplace hazards as often as necessary" and did not provide adequate training to employees "on the use of the Branson ultrasonic degreaser and degreasing solvent" involved in the chemical exposure incident, the letter says. It adds that the incident "demonstrated a lack of (or ineffective) worker exposure assessment to chemical hazards through workplace monitoring as well as ineffective pre-job briefings to prepare workers for the assigned tasks." The letter notes that the same issues with chemical handling “were evident at the time of a drum explosion at NNSS” in June 2014 that injured two workers at the site’s Nonproliferation Test and Evaluation Complex.
NSTec said in an emailed statement, "We appreciate that the Office of Enforcement elected to issue an Enforcement Letter, rather than pursuing more formal enforcement processes. We are confirming that our corrective actions are fully addressing the conditions associated with this incident, and will expand them as necessary to ensure the safety of our workforce."
