nuclear-news

Another complaint, by whistleblower at Hanford nuclear waste site

“This is an aggressive, retaliatory stance,” …”It is demonstrative of the systemic issues here, so significant that even the Department of Energy found it offensive.”

New complaint filed about Wash. nuclear waste site SF Gate, By SHANNON DININNY, Associated Press, March 23, 2012 The Energy Department is investigating another complaint claiming a contractor at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site interfered with an investigation into the design and safety of a massive plant under construction to treat nuclear waste.

The complaint is the latest in a string of whistleblower and other claims related to the design and safety of the $12.3 billion waste treatment plant at the Hanford nuclear reservation in south-central Washington…….
The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as part of the
top-secret project to build the atomic bomb. Today, it is the nation’s
most contaminated nuclear site, where cleanup costs about $2 billion
each year.

Central to that cleanup: 53 million gallons of highly radioactive
waste left from decades of plutonium production for the nation’s
nuclear weapons arsenal. The waste is stored in 177 aging, underground
tanks, many of which have leaked, threatening the groundwater and the
neighboring Columbia River.

The one-of-a-kind plant is being built to convert the waste into
glasslike logs for permanent disposal underground, but it has faced
numerous technical problems, delays and cost increases.

Most recently, several workers raised safety concerns, and two have
filed suit as whistleblowers saying they were targeted for reprisals
for raising questions.

Donna Busche, who filed one of the whistleblower lawsuits, also filed
the latest complaint after learning that a manager at URS Corp. sought
to keep her from participating in the review unless her supervisor was
present.

URS is a subcontractor to Bechtel National Inc., the company building
the plant, and provides expertise in the plant’s eventual operation.
Busche works for URS as the manager of environmental and nuclear
safety for the plant……
Busche, 49, has worked at Energy Department nuclear complexes her
entire career, generally in nuclear safety, quality assurance or
regulatory compliance. She called the latest interference “egregious.”

“This is an aggressive, retaliatory stance,” she said. “It is demonstrative of the systemic issues here, so significant that even the Department of Energy found it offensive.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/03/23/national/a134652D75.DTL#ixzz1q55IO1xX

March 24, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | civil liberties, USA