NNSA LOOKING TO IMPROVE AFTER ‘SOBERING’ SAFETY CULTURE REVIEW

A safety culture review of the National Nuclear Security Administration released last month provided “sobering feedback” to the agency, according to Associate Principal Deputy Administrator Michael Lempke, who said yesterday that the agency was working to repair communications with employees and provide a better working environment for its workers. The safety culture study revealed a “lack of trust” among the agency’s employees as well as problems with communication and a “fear of reprisal” for raising concerns that Lempke said the agency is taking seriously. “We have to be open to hearing things we don’t like,” he said at the Energy Facility Contractors Group meeting in Washington yesterday. “We must welcome dissenting opinions and deal with them in an intellectually honest manner each and every time without fail. We have to continue to build and rebuild our partnerships every day across the enterprise in many ways but improving communications has to be one of them.” He later added: “We have to do better and I think we have to do it now. If you think of where this leads us it’s not a pretty place and it’s certainly not where any of us wants to go.”