The Department of Energy has issued an enforcement letter to an Amentum-Jacobs joint venture and its subcontractor GEM Technologies over “concerns with improper asbestos exposure monitoring” during cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Mouse House.
The DOE’s Office of Enforcement, however, plans no additional action against URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR) or GEM over asbestos program shortcomings during deactivation and decommissioning work at the Y-12 Biology Complex’s Building 9210 in Oak Ridge, Tenn., according to the July 6 letter.
The enforcement office faulted UCOR for failing to properly oversee the donning and removal of personal asbestos monitors by subcontracted abatement workers.
In general, the Office of Enforcement said UCOR should have played a more active role in ensuring compliance monitoring.
“An appropriate chain-of-custody process was not employed for retaining control of air sample cassettes through the duration of the sampling and analysis process,” according to the office’s enforcement letter. Without this, “the validity of the sampling data is questionable,” the letter states.
Also at issue is workers “wearing personal air sampling pumps that were placed in the “HOLD” mode” or not pumping during four days in mid-July 2020, according to the enforcement office that is part of DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments. There were evidently some unusually low asbestos readings afterward, according to DOE.
Such a practice could have mischaracterized “worker exposures to elevated airborne concentrations of asbestos fibers during hazardous materials abatement,” at the National Nuclear Security Administration site, according to the enforcement office.
The Office of Enforcement said it could not prove or disprove any allegations of “willful noncompliance,” by UCOR, GEM, or a business hired by GEM, Performance Abatement Services. UCOR had suspected Performance Abatement Services had “attempted to bias” personnel asbestos samples.
The events were initially reported by UCOR as “potentially involving deception or willful misconduct,” according to letters sent to GEM and UCOR. The prime contractor
The enforcement office carried out the onsite portion of its investigation over four days starting April 20, 2021. The enforcement probe involved interviews with contractor and subcontractor staff, examination of equipment and workplace records, according to the enforcement letters. The DOE office issued a notice of intent to investigate in November 2020.
The enforcement office said it and the DOE Office of Environmental Management will continue to monitor the asbestos program for workers at Oak Ridge.
Major demolition of the Biology Complex, or Mouse House, at Y-12 has been completed and involved dealing with probably 800 tons of asbestos-contaminated material, a UCOR representative told the Waste Management Symposium in Phoenix during March.
In February, a new UCOR, United Cleanup Oak Ridge, which includes not only Amentum and Jacobs but Honeywell as the third partner, took over the new remediation contract at Oak Ridge. Formed in the 1990s, GEM is a DOE small business subcontractor based in Knoxville, Tenn.
