Offsite Insights 2022-3
by Don Moniak
October 21, 2022
A Savannah River Site (SRS) work place safety record may have ended this past August, shortly after an SRS contractor publicized the accomplishment.
On June 29, 2022 Savannah River Mission Completion’s (SRMC) public relations office issued a news release stating “Over the past 24 years and spanning three liquid waste contractors, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management’s (EM) construction team at the Savannah River Site (SRS) has achieved 35 million safe hours without injury resulting in a missed day of work.”
According to a September 18, 2022, Savannah River Site (SRS) Occurrence Report, the record could be over. On August 9, 2022, an SRMC construction carpenter tripped on a scaffold pole and fell on the asphalt. The injured worker was diagnosed by a nurse and doctor at the contractor’s onsite Health Services as having “a small abrasion to the left elbow and a right shoulder strain,” treated with an anitbiotic ointment and a bandaid, and was released for work.
At a follow up visit nine days later the worker complained of pain and discomfort in the injured shoulder, was referred to an offsite orthopedist, and diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff. A month after the accident, the carpenter underwent surgery to repair the right torn rotator cuff. On the day of the surgery, the accident finally made it into DOE’s Occurrence Reporting and Processing System (ORPS); which is designed to provide “timely notification to the DOE complex of events that could adversely affect: public or DOE worker health and safety, the environment, national security, DOE’s safeguards and security interests, functioning of DOE facilities, or the Department’s reputation.”
The accident raises questions about the site’s claim to 35 million hours without a lost day of work in the liquid radioactive waste management’s construction program; as well as safety claims made across the rest of the site. OSHA regulations regarding recordable injuries are filled with frequently asked questions and specific scenarios about what constitutes a lost day.
Companies constantly strive to reach accomplishments on paper that may not accurately reflect actual safety records. There is no shortage of stories involving injured workers being pressured and harassed to return to work. Whether there was pressure to return to work in this case is unknown. SRS officials at both the contractor’s and Department of Energy’s public affairs offices were asked (1) about this specific event and chose to ignore the inquiry.
What is known is that serious workplace injuries and accidents are more common at Savannah River Site than the polished record presented by public relations offices of both DOE and its contractors. A news release with an asterisk such as “only construction workers” can easily be misunderstood as “all workers” by a casual reader.
Just a few of the reportable accidents that met the reporting thresholds in the ORPS program during this calendar year include:
On January 27, 2022, a worker supporting “disassembly of a roofing support shoring tower” at a radioactive waste disposal site was struck by the tower frame, lost consciousness, and was transported to Augusta University Hospital. The diagnosis was a temporal bone fracture, a laceration requiring seven sutures, and a concussion. This accident within the liquid radioactive waste program occurred six months before the SRMC’s “35 Million Safe Hours” new release; casting further doubts on the validity of the claim.
On Friday July 22, 2022, a Savannah River Ecology Lab (SREL) researcher suffered a snakebite on the hand from a Copperhead while “attempting to retrieve a radio tracked gopher frog in a remote area.” The worker was transported to AU Medical Center and was treated for more than 48 hours.
On September 8, 2022, “while performing valving inside of the contamination area for the Acid Recovery Unit, an operator tripped over a piece of plywood and fell backwards, resulting in a back injury.” A day later an X-ray showed a fractured vertebrae.
On September 26, 2022, a crane operator exited a 50-ton crane to evaluate the crane placement for an upcoming job. After exiting the crane, the 50-ton crane rolled into a dumpster, pushing the dumpster into a fence causing damage to the crane, dumpster, and fence. There were no injuries and no damage estimates.
On July 2 and 3, 2022, an evacuation occurred at Savannah River National Laboratory due to the failure of portable air compressors for radiological exhaust systems. The portable compressors were being used due to a cooling water outage. Replacement compressors failed seven times before a larger air compressor was employed.
This particular occurrence drew the attention of Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board (DNFSB) representatives. In their July 8, 2022 weekly report , Resident Inspectors reported “poor (Technical Safety Requirements) administration and weaknesses in the abnormal event response;” and several several safety issues with the exhaust, ventilation, and fire systems.
The inspectors also found several oversights in the lab’s subsequent fact-finding investigation, particularly in the implementation of Limited Conditions of Operation (LCO). The Board reps wrote: “Most egregiously, the logbook indicated not completing two separate LCO required actions within the required completion time.” Defense Board representatives are often understated and seldom employ words like “egregious.”
The incident was entered into the ORPS notification system on July 14, 2022 and the final report, titled “Loss of Instrument Air and failure of associated radiological exhaust,” was not completed until September 21st. Eight corrective actions were noted, suggesting Board representatives properly recognized the seriousness of the incident and the muddled response to it before the lab did.
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Footnotes
(1) The following email was sent to SRMC’s L. Ling and cc’ed to DOE’s Amy Boyette:
Mr. Ling,
In regard to the story about 35 million hours without a lost workday accident, was this record affected by this accident, EM-SR–SRMC-HTANK-2022-0005,
31. HQ Summary:
On August 9, 2022, construction carpenters were disassembling a containment hut in a barricaded work area near Tank 35. Laborers had placed scaffold poles in the storage rack just prior to the incident. During the work evolution, a construction carpenter tripped on a tube-lock scaffold pole that was extending outside of the storage rack and fell on the asphalt (same level fall). The worker was evaluated by a Savannah River Mission Completion Health Services nurse and a site medical physician. The initial diagnosis was a small abrasion to the left elbow and a right shoulder strain. For initial treatment, the abrasion to the left elbow was cleaned, and antibiotic ointment and a band aid was applied. The worker was discharged and returned to work. On August 18, the worker followed up at site medical, where they reported pain and discomfort in their right shoulder. The worker was subsequently referred to an offsite orthopedic physician. On August 23, Safety Reporting was notified that the employee was seen by an orthopedic physician and given prescription medication. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was scheduled, and the worker returned to work with instructions to use their right arm as tolerated. On August 30, the MRI results indicated the worker had a torn rotator cuff. On September 8, the worker had an outpatient arthroscopic procedure where the surgeon confirmed and repaired the right torn rotator cuff.
If not, how often have injuries later turned out to be worse than initially diagnosed? Was this worker pressured to return to work to avoid an OSHA recordable lost-day event?
This is also a final occurrence report. Can SRMC explain why there were no lessons learned?
There was no link to news release author Jim Beasley, so I was unable to ask him directly about this. Please forward if necessary.
Thank You,
Donald Moniak
Eureka Research, LLC
PO Box 112
Vaucluse, SC 29850
803-617-9736
contributor: aikenchronicles.com
(2) Savannah River Mission Completions Occurrence Reports for 2022.