Acting DOE Cleanup Chief Says Yes, DNFSB Appears Skeptical
Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
10/10/2014
In the face of at times tough questions from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Mark Whitney said this week that he believes DOE’s cleanup program is a “leader” when it comes to ensuring workers can raise concerns without fear, though he also acknowledged further improvements are necessary. “I do believe that EM, while we still have work to do, has been a leader in this area within the Department and across our complex to further improve our safety culture,” Whitney said at the third in a series of hearings the DNFSB has held on the topic of safety culture across the DOE complex. “I am observing signs that we are heading in the right direction in terms of building a more positive safety culture, not only at the [Hanford] Waste Treatment Plant but across the complex,” he said, adding, “Our focus has to remain on continuous improvement throughout the process.”
Safety Culture Concerns at WTP Brought Issue to Broader Attention
The question of whether workers at DOE sites feel comfortable raising concerns without fear of harassment or retaliation gained attention in 2010, when a senior contractor executive at the Hanford vit plant alleged he was removed from working on the project because he raised technical issues. The Board subsequently launched an investigation into the safety culture at the WTP, and in 2011, issued a formal recommendation to DOE that warned of a “flawed” culture at the project that could jeopardize its successful completion. The DNFSB recommendation also called on DOE to determine if safety culture concerns were more wide-spread and a series of reviews have found safety culture concerns at a variety of sites and projects, stretching to EM headquarters itself.
On the sidelines of the hearing, Winokur acknowledged that it takes time to improve an existing culture, but also said the DNFSB wants to begin seeing “measureable improvements” throughout the DOE complex when it comes to safety culture. “We’ve been working this thing for three years. So the point is it takes a long time to change culture and we know that, but we definitely do want to start moving in the right direction, definitely do want to see improvements—measurable improvements—and we would like the federal and contractor workforce both acknowledge they’re hearing the message, they understand the message and they want to improve safety culture at the site,” he told WC Monitor.
When asked if he agreed with Whitney’s assessment that EM is a “leader” on safety culture, Winokur replied, “I would have to give some thought to that. I think he pointed out some sites where he thinks they have best practices. I would have to give some thought to exactly what their rationale for that is.” Winokur added, “During the hearing … we focused on some challenges associated with the Waste Treatment Plant project and the WIPP facility where they had a very serious accident, so in light of that, it would certainly give me pause.”
‘It’s Hard to Turn on a Dime’
Whitney, in his first appearance before the DNFSB, outlined the actions EM has taken to make safety culture improvements, such as increased training, self-assessments by sites and the development of site-specific safety culture sustainment plans. When asked by Chairman Winokur if EM is a “leader” in safety culture “because you’re working hard at it, or do you feel your sites really do have a strong safety culture,” Whitney replied, “I feel that across our sites there is a strong safety culture. I do. And I believe that we have specific sites where we’ve had incidents and things happen that would indicate otherwise. But I think generally across the board, we do have a strong safety culture at our sites.”
Whitney went on to say, though, “But it’s not perfect … and to be quite honest with you, I think no matter what line of work you’re in, what industry you’re in, your safety culture will never be perfect but we should continue to strive for that.” He also emphasized that making substantive improvements will not happen overnight. “While EM is only 25 years old, 25 years is enough time to develop a culture, and it’s hard to turn on a dime,” Whitney said. “It is a journey.”
Latest WTP Assessment ‘Really Sobering,” DNFSB Chair Says
This summer, though, DOE issued the results of a follow-on safety culture assessment performed at the Hanford vit plant that found significant safety culture concerns continue to persist. While noting the improvement efforts both DOE’s Office of River Protection and WTP contractor Bechtel National have sought to make, the assessment found that “the lack of significant measurable change in employee perceptions indicates they are insufficient to internalize the beliefs and values necessary to effectively change culture and therefore behavior.” At this week’s meeting, Winokur called the results of the latest WTP safety culture assessment “really sobering.” He told Whitney, “The Board wrote a recommendation three years ago. There was an HSS [DOE Office of Health, Safety and Security] assessment three years ago. Here were are three years later, and this assessment is basically saying no improvement. I’m just trying to figure out why you think things are going to improve on that project.” Winokur also noted that the latest assessment found negative trends. “You’re not gaining ground. You’re going backward on this project,” he told Whitney.
Whitney said he believes DOE has a “committed and focused leadership team” in place at the Office of River Protection, headed by Manager Kevin Smith, to continue to push for safety culture improvements. “I’m not naïve. I understand it’s a large project. The concerns that were identified were so great a couple of years ago … it’s going to take time. But we are committed and we’ll provide the focus and dedication to see it through,” Whitney said. “I will say that it’s not been a lack of effort by the team and not the focus. I do think it goes back to … we have a culture that’s decades old and it takes time to change,” he said. “Really getting at some of these issues—it’s not a two-year process. We have to face that. It doesn’t mean we should stop trying.”
Whitney also said that other EM sites can learn from the efforts underway at Hanford. “Ironic as it may sound, I think what WTP and ORP are going through right now and the processes that they’re focused on, although I think to date there’s been some marginal improvement, but as the 2014 assessment indicated, we’ve got a long ways to go, I think there are things that we can learn from what they are doing,” he said. “They have some good ideas and some good things they’re implementing that we want to support and we want to take them to other sites and we want to bring them to headquarters too.”
WIPP Assessment Raises Questions over Safety Culture Status at Other Sites
Safety culture concerns were also identified earlier this year at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, where an investigation into a radiological release at the facility found that workers both at the Department’s Carlsbad Field Office and at WIPP managing contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership had “expressed a reluctance to report issues due to observation of or perceived fear of reprisals.” During this week’s hearing, DNFSB Member Sean Sullivan noted that a self-assessment performed in early 2013 by DOE and NWP had determined that a strong safety culture was in place. “So they did an assessment in January of ’13 that said they had a fully mature culture, and then 13 months later we have incidents which lead to an investigation report that said the culture was not good at all. How did this happen?” Sullivan asked Whitney.
Replying that the result of the 2013 assessment was “clearly not the case,” Whitney said DOE is now working to improve how self-assessments are performed. “We are focusing on the guidance for conducting self-assessments, and increasing the rigor and the structure and the consistency of those,” he said. “Self-assessments are imperfect by nature. Human nature, right? They’re never going to be perfect. I do think part of the value in those is going through the process—from my experience in the field that was tremendous. It goes back to being sincere about it and committed to it and the folks in the organization believe you mean what you say.”
When asked if DOE planned to go back and examine other self-assessments that have been performed, Whitney said the Department does not currently plan to launch such a formal review. “We have not, at this point, undertaken a systematic review … based on what happened at WIPP. We do plan to look at that when the final report is complete, but what we have done is really focused our efforts working with the individual sites, starting with basic things like briefings … on what happened, what were some of the issues that they uncovered,” he said.
Winokur noted, though, “You go out to a site and they tell you they have a great ISMS safety culture system and then you have an accident that follows, so you really wonder whether or not the assessment or headquarters’ perception of what’s going on at the sites is what it needs to be.”
DOE to Conduct New WTP Safety Culture Assessment Later This Year
DOE now plans to conduct a new safety culture assessment at the Hanford vit plant this winter, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz told the DNFSB, noting that after the last assessment the Department gave an “immediate charge” to the Office of River Protection and Bechtel National that there would be a new review in one year. “When the site and the contractor have good performance, they will have a little more time. When there are shortcomings, we’re going to go back and tell them, ‘One year from now we’re going to come back and you’re going to be graded on this,’” Moniz said. He said that DOE’s plans to conduct a new assessment at the WTP sends “a strong message” to both the federal and contractor organizations about the importance of safety culture. “If there is not improvement at this one-year review, there will be a more stern message, to be perfectly honest,” he said.
When asked on the sidelines of the DNFSB hearing what would happen if the new assessment again found continued safety culture concerns at the WTP, Whitney replied, “I think that if the assessment comes back later this year or early next year that there are still issues, I think that it is an example of … this is a process that takes time and constant commitment to resolve. And even when we feel like we’re in a better place with respect to safety culture, it’s going to take continuous work on our part.” He told WC Monitor, “So I know the work that Kevin and his team are putting into this topic, and I know how much time they’re spending on it. And it’s not just them working on it and nothing else happening, I had an opportunity recently to speak with many folks at different levels in the organization there to kind of get a sense for what they’re thinking, and I’m hearing really good things about the organization, the environment there, and so I’m hoping that’s a good indication that the next report will come back positive. But what I do know is they’re serious about this and they’re focused on it.”
DOE Looking at How Contracts Are Structured to Incentivize Strong Safety Culture
Going forward, DOE plans to examine how Requests for Proposals for new contracts are structured to help better incentivize a strong safety culture, according to Moniz. “I think there are a lot of incentives that need to be put in at the right time, and that’s up front when you’re asking for the proposals,” he said. “A lot of how contracts are structured upfront can be very material on managing downstream problems, and we have to look at that kind of procurement reform.”
Moniz added, “These things often take some time to change, but I believe that the training, I hope a more consistent level of attention at the senior levels of the Department, and, as I mentioned, and maybe I’m putting too much stock into this, the [idea] of looking upfront when procurements start is the time to start doing this. You are always behind if you’re responding to an incident and the levers are not what one perhaps should’ve had in place.”
