The Department of Energy prime for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Monday stood by its handling of a January incident where two workers were temporarily stuck in a hoist 1,500-feet below the surface of the facility in Eddy County, N.M.
“The safety of our workforce is always our top priority,” a Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) contractor spokesperson said by email Monday. “Constant communications were maintained with the employees until power was restored. Based upon the system design and the events that occurred, our team followed the proper reporting protocols, ensuring the safety of all employees involved,” the spokesperson added.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board staff said this month DOE and its prime, Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, should have reported the incident into DOE’s Occurrence Reporting and Processing System.
The two workers were stuck inside the waste hoist’s man cage for up to 30 minutes on Jan. 23, due to a digital glitch that caused a power loss, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report.
While the elevator’s braking system prevented an accident, “the board’s staff consider a loss of hoist control due to the power outage to be an unsafe condition” that should have been reported into the DOE system, the board said.
