Nuclear and worker safety : limited information exists on costs and reasons for work stoppages at DOE's Hanford Site : report to congressional requesters.
The Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site in Washington State stores 56 million gallons of untreated radioactive and hazardous wastes resulting from decades of nuclear weapons production. DOE is constructing facilities at the site to treat these wastes before permanent disposal. As part of...
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| Format: | Government Document eBook |
| Language: | English |
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[Washington, D.C.] :
U.S. Govt. Accountability Office,
[2009]
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| Online Access: | https://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/LPS114548 |
| Summary: | The Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site in Washington State stores 56 million gallons of untreated radioactive and hazardous wastes resulting from decades of nuclear weapons production. DOE is constructing facilities at the site to treat these wastes before permanent disposal. As part of meeting health, safety, and other standards, work at the site has sometimes been suspended to address safety or construction quality issues. This report discusses (1) work stoppages from January 2000 through December 2008 and what is known about them, (2) the types of costs associated with work stoppages and who paid for them, and (3) whether more effective regulation or oversight could have prevented the work stoppages. GAO interviewed knowledgeable DOE and contractor officials about these events. When documentation was available, GAO obtained DOE and contractor accident and safety incident reports, internal DOE and independent external evaluations, and costs. GAO is recommending that the Secretary of Energy (1) establish criteria for when DOE should direct contractors to track and report reasons for and costs of work stoppages and (2) specify the types of costs to be tracked. In commenting on a draft of the report, DOE generally agreed with GAO's recommendations but plans to implement them only within Environmental Management. |
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| Item Description: | Title from cover screen (GAO, viewed June 9, 2009). "May 2009." "GAO-09-451." Electronic resource. |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (ii, 29 pages) : illustrations |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |