Washington state’s two U.S. senators are urging new Energy Secretary Rick Perry to continue the efforts started by his predecessor to better protect Hanford Site workers from chemical vapors.
“Nothing less than a complete commitment to safety at Hanford is acceptable,” Democrat Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray said Thursday in a letter to Perry. Cantwell is the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The lawmakers asked Perry to develop a plan with a schedule and the funding needed to implement recommendations made in three recent independent reviews of chemical vapor issues at the Hanford waste storage tank farms. The reports had different objectives, but common themes in their recommendations, the senators said. These included improvements in communication and trust between management and workers, the workers’ compensation program, the industrial hygiene program, engineering controls, and worker involvement.
DOE also should develop a mechanism that ensures safety improvements continue as contracts expire and new contractors are hired, the senators said. “It is clear that consistent oversight is a key component to improving safety,” they said. The senators suggested that DOE commit to annual reviews of health and safety practices to be conducted by the DOE Offices of the Inspector General and Enterprise Assessments.
An independent assessment led by the Savannah River National Laboratory in 2014 concluded there was a link between chemical vapors at the Hanford tank farm and worker health issues, particularly upper respiratory irritation. Workers are concerned that exposure to chemical vapors associated with chemical and radioactive waste held in underground tanks could cause serious respiratory and neurological illnesses. Dozens of workers reported possible chemical exposures in 2016, leading to additional independent reviews by the DOE Office of Inspector General, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments.
