Is ‘War on Whistleblowers’ Underway at Hanford?
Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
2/21/2014
In a move that’s prompted new calls for investigations into how the Department of Energy protects whistleblowers, URS this week terminated a key nuclear safety manager at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant who has alleged she has faced harassment and retaliation for raising safety issues. URS, which is a major subcontractor at the Hanford vit plant, has largely declined to say why it terminated Donna Busche, who worked at the WTP for five years and who held the position of Environmental and Nuclear Safety Manager—one of the listed “key personnel” positions in the Hanford vit plant contract. Busche told WC Monitor that URS officials informed her Feb. 18 she was being fired for “unprofessional conduct,” adding that as of late this week, she has yet to be given any additional information as to why she was terminated. “I have received absolutely no word whatsoever. … It’s been deathly silent from URS,” she said, adding that her termination is “the ultimate adverse action.”
Busche has filed two complaints with the Department of Labor in recent years, as well as a lawsuit, alleging she has faced harassment and retaliation from WTP contractor Bechtel National and URS for raising safety issues. Both contractors, though, have strongly denied such allegations. In a statement this week, URS said Busche’s termination was due to “issues unrelated to her purported concerns,” but declined to provide any additional details. “URS encourages its employees to raise concerns about safety, which is the company’s highest priority, and we have an excellent track record of safely operating nuclear facilities. Though URS supports Ms. Busche’s right to raise concerns and to express her personal views, we do not agree with her assertions that she suffered retaliation or was otherwise treated unfairly,” a company spokesman said. “Ms. Busche’s allegations will not withstand scrutiny, and URS looks forward to demonstrating through the legal process that the company and its managers acted appropriately and in full compliance with the law in their dealings with Ms. Busche.”
Bechtel National “had no role in URS’s decision to terminate its employee Ms. Busche,” contractor spokeswoman Suzanne Heaston said late this week. In a message to employees earlier this week, Bechtel National Project Director Peggy McCullough said she had been “informed that URS took an employment action to terminate URS employee Donna Busche as a result of a URS investigation into misconduct, and that the action was not related to raising safety concerns or performance.” McCullough added, “Safety and quality are our core values. As I have discussed with you in our all-employee sessions, we encourage you to raise concerns and we rely upon you to help surface and resolve our issues.”
DOE Says It Wasn’t Given Advance Notice
The Department of Energy, which has sought to improve the safety culture at the WTP in recent years, this week appeared to distance itself from URS’ decision to fire Busche. “The Department of Energy was informed that URS terminated Ms. Busche after the fact. The Department was not asked to and did not approve this action,” a DOE spokesperson said in a brief written response. Under Bechtel National’s contract at the WTP, the contractor is to get approval from DOE for making changes in the set of key personnel. However, the contract does not specifically address when a subcontractor terminates someone who held a key personnel spot. The Department did not respond to repeated requests for additional comment on URS’ move.
Busche criticized DOE, saying the Department’s “silence” on her termination has been “deafening.” DOE’s policies for protecting whistleblowers are “nonexistent,” Busche said, accusing the Department of “turning a blind eye” to contractor actions. “Contractors are going completely unchecked. Completely unchecked,” she said.
‘DOE Is Part of the Problem,’ Senator Says
In a strongly worded statement this week, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) lashed out at DOE for Busche’s termination, saying the move “shows that nothing has changed at the Energy Department when it comes to stifling dissent. When DOE sits back and allows its contractors to systematically remove whistleblowers, it is clear that DOE is part of the problem, despite all of the rhetoric to the contrary.” Wyden said he plans to ask the Government Accountability Office to investigate “not only the pattern of contractor retaliation against whistleblowers at Hanford, but also DOE’s lack of response to these actions,” adding, “Finally, I plan to personally hold accountable DOE officials for the unchecked retaliation against whistleblowers who have revealed major, legitimate risks to public safety.”
The watchdog group Hanford Challenge is also calling for an investigation into Busche’s termination. “Hanford’s war on whistleblowers has taken a new victim: Donna Busche, widely acknowledged to be a top professional in the field of environmental and nuclear safety. Contractors like URS and Bechtel should be fired themselves for suppressing employees’ free speech about safety and health issues,” Hanford Challenge Executive Director Tom Carpenter said in a statement. “Without people like Donna Busche, who continue to fight for safety concerns despite retaliation, who can we rely on to safeguard the public and the environment?” Carpenter said.
DNFSB Says It May Hold Safety Culture Hearing
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Peter Winokur declined to comment this week specifically on Busche’s termination, saying it was an “internal decision made by the contractor.” He did say, though, that the Board is considering holding a hearing on the broader issue of how DOE is working to improve safety culture across the complex. “We’ll evaluate that and get a sense of that. The Board hasn’t made a final decision, but the Board may be looking at a hearing in the future to look at safety culture and to look at the progress the Department of Energy is making on that. So we’ll look at the full scope of everything that’s going on out there and really nothing is off the table in terms of what we want to discuss with the Department of Energy,” Winokur said.
The Board’s stance on Busche’s termination stands in apparent contrast to how the DNFSB reacted in 2010, when Walter Tamosaitis, who held the position of research and technology manager at the WTP, alleged he was removed from working on the project for raising safety concerns. Tamosaitis continued to be employed by URS until last fall, when he was let go in layoffs URS said were prompted by budget issues. Tamosaitis’ allegations prompted the Board to conduct a significant investigation into the safety culture at the Hanford vit plant, resulting in the issuing of a formal recommendation to DOE warning of a “flawed” environment that could threaten the project’s successful completion.
‘The Plant is Not Good’
Busche stressed this week that the “bigger issue” than her termination is the technical concerns that still need to be addressed at the Hanford vit plant. DOE has largely ramped down work on two key portions of the plant—the Pretreatment and High-Level Waste facilities—to fully resolve remaining technical issues, though a decision on how much work to restart at the High-Level Waste Facility is expected by the end of this month. “I don’t want people to get distracted by something that’s going to be a two-or-three-year legal fight for me. The real issue is the plant is not good,” she said.
Busche said she plans to be an “advocate” for safety at the WTP going forward. “At this point in time, I’m just trying to catch my breath,” she said. “I’m going to file for unemployment … and I’m sure URS is going to fight it. So I’m just going to continue to put the pressure on while this story still has some news value and then everything will just be quiet, and then I’ll just wait my stuff out in court. That’s really my path forward.”
