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http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/2004/aug/05/517292125.html

 

August 05, 2004

 

DOE failed to alert workers to disease risk

 

Feds knew of silica dangers in Yucca tunnels for years

 

By Suzanne Struglinski

<suzanne

© 2004 LAS VEGAS SUN

 

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department was warned of the

dangers of silica at Yucca Mountain years before it

told workers of the threat, department documents show.

 

Memos and e-mails sent over several years show that

key managers were told there was silica dust, which

can lead to the fatal lung disease silicosis, in the

mountain's tunnels during and after the main tunnel of

the proposed nuclear waste repository was dug.

 

The documents, which are public and part of the

department's material supporting its license

application to build the repository, show that the

department failed to follow up on plans to protect

workers.

 

And, the documents show, the department waited almost

three years to notify workers after being warned that

it needed to do so.

 

" The Department of Energy sent their workers into that

mountain knowing full well of the presence of silica

and knowing full well that exposure to silica can

cause death, " said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. " DOE also

knew that exposure is 100 percent preventable, but did

nothing that would have protected these workers. "

 

Reid held a Senate subcommittee field hearing in Las

Vegas earlier this year. Workers now ill from their

time in the mountain talked about their experiences.

 

" The fact that the DOE withheld this information from

the workers at the Yucca Mountain site is completely

irresponsible and further proves the reckless fashion

in which this project is being handled, " Reid said.

 

The Energy Department did not respond to several

requests for comment.

 

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., called the attitude

shown in the document " the height of arrogance. "

 

" Rather than just a case of negligence or

carelessness, these documents indicate that DOE knew

its actions were wrong and that workers should have

been told years earlier about the dangers created by

tunneling work without proper protection, " she said.

 

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said the Energy Department

chose to " ignore the danger and put their employees at

risk in order to keep the Yucca Mountain Project on

schedule. "

 

" If the Department of Energy has such blatant

disregard for the life, health and safety of their own

employees, how can we trust they will protect the

health and safety of the American public by storing

77,000 tons of high level radioactive waste at Yucca

Mountain? " he said.

 

Several Energy Department contractors are facing a

class-action lawsuit filed in District Court earlier

this year. The lawsuit is led by former Yucca Mountain

employee Gene Griego, who worked at Yucca Mountain

from 1993 to 2002, during the research phase, and was

diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

last year.

 

The department said it created its screening program

after employees, like Griego, raised concerns about

their exposure in September 2003. It acknowledged

worker protections were not strongly enforced during

times workers could be exposed, and documents show it

knew of the potential health risk to the workers but

still did not notify them until this year.

 

An April 2001 memo shows the department knew the

severity of keeping the exposure a secret as well as

the importance of getting workers tests for disease.

 

" An issue concerning silica exposures will become more

visible as time goes by, " according to an April 4,

2001, memo labeled " sensitive " from department

Industrial Hygienist Phillip Boehme to Suzanne

Mellington, assistant manager of the office of project

execution. " Workers in the early days of Yucca

Mountain were exposed to silica without respiratory

protection. It is advisable to medically monitor them

through the rest of their lives. "

 

He recommended that " all exposed employees from the

early years must be identified " and contacted, even if

they no longer work for the department.

 

Boehme even said the program " may become newsworthy "

and " illnesses may become subject of lawsuits, even

class action. "

 

" We should begin a coordinated effort, " he wrote.

" Lawsuits, public affairs and medical surveillance

will be shared problems. "

 

Three different memos, two from 2001 and one from

2002, from Wilbert Townsend, an engineering

specialist, show raised silica levels long after the

drilling stopped and that the limits the department

was using were outdated or lab reports were wrong.

 

On Feb. 13, 2002, Townsend monitored levels inside the

mountain and found that people working in certain

areas at that time would be overexposed in about four

hours without appropriate protection.

 

" This is still dangerous, " said attorney Joe Egan.

" This is years after the digging. "

 

After examining the documents, Egan, of Egan,

Fitzpatrick, Malsch and Cynkar, one of the law firms

representing Griego and the other plaintiffs in the

class-action suit, said he has found similar ones

showing the department delayed getting the message to

workers.

 

" These show they anticipated it, yet still did not

have the courtesy to tell these people they should be

going to the doctor, " Egan said. " DOE (the Energy

Department) actually set up procedures and

requirements but the contractors said no. "

 

Egan also represents the state in its battle against

the Yucca project, but the state is not a party to the

silicosis case.

 

The documents essentially paint a chronology of the

Energy Department's knowledge of the problems with

silica and show that the department was slow to act

despite warnings.

 

Glenn Milligan, manager of the Safety and Health

Complication Department, sent a letter to project

manager Carl Gertz outlining a silica sampling plan

for the project in July 1992, four months before the

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

issued a nationwide alert about silicosis to any

workers involved in rock drilling.

 

However, an evaluation of training and tunnel

operations from July 18, 1994, to Aug. 12, 1994, found

there was no safety training for supervisors who

specifically worked with the tunnel boring machine.

 

The project also had problems equipping workers with

safety equipment to protect against silicosis.

 

In August 1994 Wendy Dixon, the project's assistant

manager for environment, safety and health, wrote

Daniel Koss, the technical project officer for the

site characterization office, that those working in

the tunnel " must use appropriate respiratory

protection " and the appropriate sampling should occur

to monitor the exposure.

 

Margaret Chu, the project's current director, told

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in February that dust masks

were available but more advanced respiratory

protection was not available -- or their use enforced

-- until 1996.

 

In March 1996 Dixon told L. Dale Foust, technical

project officer for the Yucca Mountain Site

Characterization Office, that disposable respirators

did not satisfy the required protection needed, so a

better plan and stronger respirators were needed.

 

The documents also show a pattern of warnings,

concerns and issues with silica:

 

# On April 15, 1996, four Federal Mine Safety and

Health Administration inspectors were denied access to

the site after a complaint.

 

# In May 1996, Dixon's name appears on an " informal

memorandum " sent from Russell Baumeister, a safety and

occupational health specialist on the project, saying

certain activities like tunnel drilling and mining,

labeled " dust producers, " should be shut down for at

least two hours prior to a visit by members of the

Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board.

 

" Visitors exposed to these operations may exceed the

exposure levels for silica, " Baumeister wrote.

" Visitors should have the capability to don

respirators during their visit. "

 

# A May 1996 memo from Robert Hull, a health and

safety coordinator, said that silica levels in at

least six of the 10 researchers from the Los Alamos

National Laboratory who visited the site that month

exceeded the enforcement levels. Hull recommended the

employees be given respiratory protection and said the

lab should perform its own monitoring.

 

# A Sept. 5, 1996, " informal memorandum " from Dr. Fred

Kissell of the department's Pittsburgh Research Center

wrote that it was " not feasible to clean up the entire

tunnel. "

 

" There are too many sources of dust, the cost is

unreasonable and the implementation time it too long, "

Kissell wrote. " It has been suggested that new

ventilation lines be established to remove dusty air

from the alcoves. This many help a little but suffers

from cost and implementation time problems. "

 

# J. Davitt McAteer, assistant secretary for mine

safety and health, wrote the department in October

1996 after an assessment had been done in April 1996.

 

" If (the Mine Safety and Health Administration) had

inspected the Yucca Mountain project as a regular

mine, the 10 Compliance Assistance Visit notices given

to the Department of Energy representatives would have

been citations and a time limit for abatement would

have been set, " McAteer wrote.

 

 

Las Vegas SUN main page

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