Post by Ex_Nuke_Troop on Mar 2, 2014 18:05:09 GMT
Current Argus News : Employees concerned about safety, better environment at WIPP
By Zack Ponce
zponce@currentargus.com @zackponce12 on Twitter
POSTED: 02/28/2014 08:34:48 AM MST
CARLSBAD >> Workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant place an emphasis on safety above everything else, but the recent radiation leak at the nuclear waste repository has some people questioning how to ensure a better workplace environment.
Thirteen employees at WIPP, located 26 miles east of Carlsbad, tested positive for americium-241 on Wednesday. This was after only a handful of workers submitted to a full-body scan for radioactive particles when a radiation leak was first detected underground on the evening of Feb. 14.
The Carlsbad chapter of the United Steelworkers is baffled as to why the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Waste Partnership, a private company contracted to manage WIPP operations, have not required the scans for employees and are calling for outside help.
"I was one of the employees that they speak of that was there the next morning, and that was one of the questions we had when the alarms went off the previous night," said Rick Fuentes, president of the United Steel Workers District 12, Local 9477. "We feel that there should have been different steps that were taken."
Fuentes has contacted the international safety department in the union's headquarters in Pittsburgh. Those independent scientists will soon travel to Carlsbad to collect radiation samples independent of those taken by the DOE and the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center, a division of the College of Engineering at New Mexico State University.
The DOE has consistently claimed that the radiation leak presents no threat to the environmental or humans. However at a Thursday news conference, Carlsbad Field Office Manager Joe Franco admitted that the department is not "100 percent certain," but is "pretty sure" the surrounding population centers are safe.
The DOE and the operating partnership have encouraged all WIPP personnel to undergo radiation examination, but many of the approximately 1,200 employees in the workforce have not even been tested once.
The partnership has met with the union twice this week to keep the workers informed of the on-going situation. Operations have been halted at WIPP since Feb. 5 when a salt hauler caught on fire underground, forcing immediate evacuation of all personnel.
"The workers do want to go back to work, and they do have confidence in Joe Franco at DOE and Farok at the NWP," Fuentes said, adding that the union has not yet discussed the potential for litigation.
According a fact sheet online at the Environmental Protection Agency's Website, Americium-241 poses a significant health risk if ingested or inhaled and increases a person's risk of developing cancer.
Going forward, the union will ask the DOE and the operating partnership for a more aggressive response to any future radiation leak — a response that includes mandatory testing of all WIPP personnel on-site the next day, according to Fuentes.
"We go into this job knowing that there's always that possibility and things happen," Fuentes said referring to the radiation leak. "We don't ever hope that they happen but they do happen, and I guess the one thing we can take out of this is that it makes us better."
Reporter Zack Ponce can be reached at (575) 689-7402.
www.currentargus.com/carlsbad-news/ci_25246979/carlsbad-current-argus
By Zack Ponce
zponce@currentargus.com @zackponce12 on Twitter
POSTED: 02/28/2014 08:34:48 AM MST
CARLSBAD >> Workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant place an emphasis on safety above everything else, but the recent radiation leak at the nuclear waste repository has some people questioning how to ensure a better workplace environment.
Thirteen employees at WIPP, located 26 miles east of Carlsbad, tested positive for americium-241 on Wednesday. This was after only a handful of workers submitted to a full-body scan for radioactive particles when a radiation leak was first detected underground on the evening of Feb. 14.
The Carlsbad chapter of the United Steelworkers is baffled as to why the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Waste Partnership, a private company contracted to manage WIPP operations, have not required the scans for employees and are calling for outside help.
"I was one of the employees that they speak of that was there the next morning, and that was one of the questions we had when the alarms went off the previous night," said Rick Fuentes, president of the United Steel Workers District 12, Local 9477. "We feel that there should have been different steps that were taken."
Fuentes has contacted the international safety department in the union's headquarters in Pittsburgh. Those independent scientists will soon travel to Carlsbad to collect radiation samples independent of those taken by the DOE and the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center, a division of the College of Engineering at New Mexico State University.
The DOE has consistently claimed that the radiation leak presents no threat to the environmental or humans. However at a Thursday news conference, Carlsbad Field Office Manager Joe Franco admitted that the department is not "100 percent certain," but is "pretty sure" the surrounding population centers are safe.
The DOE and the operating partnership have encouraged all WIPP personnel to undergo radiation examination, but many of the approximately 1,200 employees in the workforce have not even been tested once.
The partnership has met with the union twice this week to keep the workers informed of the on-going situation. Operations have been halted at WIPP since Feb. 5 when a salt hauler caught on fire underground, forcing immediate evacuation of all personnel.
"The workers do want to go back to work, and they do have confidence in Joe Franco at DOE and Farok at the NWP," Fuentes said, adding that the union has not yet discussed the potential for litigation.
According a fact sheet online at the Environmental Protection Agency's Website, Americium-241 poses a significant health risk if ingested or inhaled and increases a person's risk of developing cancer.
Going forward, the union will ask the DOE and the operating partnership for a more aggressive response to any future radiation leak — a response that includes mandatory testing of all WIPP personnel on-site the next day, according to Fuentes.
"We go into this job knowing that there's always that possibility and things happen," Fuentes said referring to the radiation leak. "We don't ever hope that they happen but they do happen, and I guess the one thing we can take out of this is that it makes us better."
Reporter Zack Ponce can be reached at (575) 689-7402.
www.currentargus.com/carlsbad-news/ci_25246979/carlsbad-current-argus