IG CRITICIZES SANDIA’S SAFETY PROCESSES

Sandia National Laboratories’ “Integrated Safety Management” program is failing to identify internal weaknesses in ways that put workers at risk, according to a new report from the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General. As evidence, the IG cited a 2010 comparison between Sandia’s line management self assessments, which found just two ISM “weaknesses,” and Sandia’s Environment, Safety and Health review of the same organizations that identified 46. Sandia and the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Sandia Site Office, accepted the findings and agreed with the IG’s recommendations for improvement. Fran Nimick, Sandia’s deputy director for ES&H called it “one of the more balanced reports I’ve seen from them.” Among the recommendations are to integrate “leading indicators”—measures that identify risk rather than merely quantifying the accident rate after the fact.