The Department of Energy will not pursue a civil penalty against Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth over nuclear safety violations in fiscal year 2019 after it cut $2.6 million from the company’s potential $6.7-million subjective fee that year.
The infractions at the former gaseous diffusion plant complex in Ohio stem from shortcomings in worker radiation protection at the Portsmouth Site from 2011 through 2019, DOE said in a press release dated Jan. 14.
The notice cites two Severity Level I violations of DOE nuclear requirements that have a high potential for adverse impact on the safety of the public or workers at department properties. Three lesser violations are also listed in the notice from the Office of Enforcement within DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments.
As a result of the earlier fee reduction, “DOE has elected to exercise enforcement discretion and proposes no civil penalty for the cited violations,” according to the agency press release.
“In late 2018 and early 2019, FBP [Fluor BWXT Portsmouth] identified that required internal exposure monitoring had not been performed for 193 radiological workers,” the enforcement director, Kevin Dressman, said in a Jan. 12 letter to the contractor’s program manager, Jonathan Dowell. Separately, FBP revealed “it had incorrectly reported radiological environmental data” over eight years, from 2011 to 2018.
The problem came to light In November 2018, when a Fluor-BWXT employee expressed concern to the company’s dosimetry staff at not being asked to provide a routine bioassay sample at the expected time. The contractor determined the worker was omitted from the bioassay list due to a “query error in a non-quality-controlled database.” This error went undetected due to the contractor’s lack of compliance with software quality assurance standards, according to the Dressman letter.
John Knauff, president of United Steelworkers Local 1-689 at Portsmouth, said Friday he is disappointed that DOE did not issue a civil penalty. “They will give them [Fluor BWXT] a bigger bonus or something” down the road to make up for the reduction, the labor official said by phone.
“There are some real systemic health and safety issues with Fluor and the DOE,” and this is evidence of that, Knauff said.
Fluor BWXT did not respond to requests for comment this week.
