Preventing hazard exposure at the former Hanford nuclear production complex in Washington State is a tough problem, but it’s one that safety management and employees work together successfully to solve.
At Hanford, where a $2.4 billion, 10-year project to remove environmental risks is currently under way, radiation, chemical, and asbestos hazards are part of the everyday landscape. Even office workers have to wear proper PPE when they leave their desks and visit other areas on the site.
Clearly, guarding against big, nasty hazards is a priority for safety and health program manager Stacy Thursby and her colleagues at Washington Closure Hanford (WCH), the firm selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to manage the massive project.
“We’re a VPP site,” Thursby explains, “which allows us to empower employees to drive the safety program.” That translates into efforts like local safety improvement teams that address and fix problems.
One of the benefits of being a VPP site is that employees to look out for themselves and for others. “We encourage employees to stop work and ask questions of their supervisors, and we encourage supervisors to get their employees involved in the [safety] process. It’s a collaborative effort to be sure,” says Thursby.
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3 Million Hour Safety Streak
Despite the extraordinarily hazardous nature of the project, WCH has achieved a safety streak of nearly 3 million hours. That record is in the hands of a 1,300 workforce that includes both employees and subcontractors.
“We actually do quite well when things are pretty nasty,” says Thursby.
Among other safety initiatives, WCH:
- Performs thorough job hazard analyses that examine every job phase by phase, identifying hazards on paper as well as “walking the job down”
- Participates in the “VPP passport” program, resulting in the completion of over 600 passports by WCH employees and subcontractors
- Conducts and “aggressive” safety training and oversight program
- Provide employees with intensive PPE training, including providing technical data about PPE to justify why the protection is needed
- Publishes the Weekly Roundup, which includes hot topics, current safety initiatives, emerging safety issues, special site achievements, etc.
- Issues a special safety bulletin after long holiday weekends to get employees to refocus on safety
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