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Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson today issued the Energy Department's report on its five month investigation of past and current practices that potentially effected the environment and the safety and health of workers and the public at the department's Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Southern Ohio.

"Our investigations of the Energy Department's environmental, safety and health practices during the Cold War help in determining additional steps we can take today to correct the wrongs of the past," said Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. "While this report confirms that workers and the public aren't at risk, there are actions the department can and will take to promote the safety and heath of our workers and the public."

The report concludes that current operations in Energy Department-controlled areas of the plant do not present an immediate risk to workers or the public, but that there are also weaknesses in current operations that need to be addressed. Decisive actions have been taken to implement interim remedial actions to reduce the spread of contamination from waste areas and to public areas beyond the plant's boundaries. Significant progress has been made implementing existing cleanup agreements and regulations, and the Portsmouth plant is in full compliance with state and federal Environmental Protection Agency requirements. The team did not look at uranium enrichment operations conducted at the plant by the United States Enrichment Corp., which is regulated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The report is based on the second in a series of three investigations of the department's three gaseous diffusion plants. Secretary Richardson ordered the investigations last August when he learned of poor historical practices at the sites. The investigations are making it possible for the department to assess past and present environmental protection and the health and safety of workers and the public, as well as take necessary corrective actions. The investigations are the responsibility of the department's independent Office of Oversight.

A 28-member team of environment, safety and health professionals conducted more than 200 interviews with managers and workers, observed work activities, inspected facility plans, conducted radiological surveys, reviewed hundreds of documents and analyzed groundwater, surface water, sediment and soil samples.

Current Operations

Bechtel Jacobs runs the Department of Energy's cleanup operations at Portsmouth. Site services, infrastructure maintenance and waste operations have been transferred to a single subcontractor.

The investigation indicated specific weaknesses in current environment, safety and health programs that need to be addressed. These weaknesses involve areas such as environmental radiation protection surveillances, the worker radiation protection program and occupational safety and health. Particular attention is needed to implement the department's integrated safety management policy to effectively analyze and control the hazards associated with the department's remaining cleanup work.

In response, the Department of Energy and Bechtel Jacobs have implemented a number of interim corrective actions in current environment, safety and health programs, including work in the following areas:

Worker Safety and Health

• Verified radiological postings in all areas controlled by the Energy Department at the site;
• Inspected inventories and confirmed appropriate management of material storage areas; and
• Enhanced radiological programs with additional radiological engineering personnel.

Public and Environmental Protection

• Conducted additional soil, surface water, groundwater and sediment sampling for transuranic and other radiological contaminants;
• Reestablished Energy Department management of 15 air monitoring systems, with plans to upgrade the equipment to obtain more comprehensive data by October;
• Revised environmental monitoring program to broaden analysis of uranium and other radionuclides;
• Received funding for scrap metal yard removal project that will begin this summer; and
• Increased routine air monitoring for depleted uranium at cylinder yard and scrap metal yards on the site.

Additionally, longer-term actions are being taken, including:

Worker Safety and Health

• Continuing quality reviews of work control processes and ways to improve programs;
• Placing additional emphasis on subcontractor oversight and onsite observation of work; and
• Hiring additional and increasing training for safety and environmental staff.

Public and Environmental Protection

• Shipping sludge containing low-level chromium offsite to Utah. A total of 890 boxes will be shipped by September 30 and
• Finishing investigation of the barrier wall near the southern boundary of the plant by October to confirm its effectiveness in preventing the plume of contaminated groundwater from migrating offsite.

Department of Energy program managers responsible for overseeing the Portsmouth plant are required to submit a corrective action plan addressing each of the report's findings within 60 days. The full implementation of corrective actions will be monitored by the department's independent oversight staff.

The review of historical operations at the site indicates that certain work activities and locations posed higher exposure risks to radiological and chemical hazards than others. Enrichment process facilities with the potential for such exposures include the cascade and other process buildings; a fuel manufacturing plant; an oxide conversion plant; decontamination, cleaning and uranium recovery facilities and incinerators. The most hazardous operations at the plant involved the operation of the oxide conversion plant, which had continuous airborne and surface radioactive contamination over its use from 1957 to 1978. Personnel working in this facility were exposed to transuranics and other hazards.

At times, workers were exposed to chemicals with health effects that had not yet been identified because the department's controls for chemical hazards evolved along with general industry practices. Potentially harmful exposures included fluoride, beryllium, asbestos and PCBs.

Standard environmental practices of the past resulted in adverse impacts to the environment, nearly all on the site of the facility, before federal and state legislation was passed in the 1970s and 1980s that required more rigorous environmental protection.

The ongoing medical surveillance of current and former workers at the Portsmouth Plant will benefit from information learned by the investigation team. It also improves the department's understanding of worker exposures associated with materials throughout the nuclear weapons complex. The information will be used in ongoing assessments of worker exposures to specific chemical and radioactive materials and the health effects of those exposures. The report also provides important background information that supports the Clinton/Gore Administration's proposal for worker illness compensation legislation.

The same 28-member team conducted the investigation of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Their investigation of the East Tennessee Technology Park, formerly known as the K-25 site, in Oak Ridge is scheduled to be complete this fall.

Copies of the two-volume report and related documents are available on the Internet at http://www.tis.eh.doe.gov/oversight/reviews/portsmouth/. The report can be reviewed at the Department of Energy's Environmental Information Center at the plant and at the Pike County Public Library in Waverly.

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R-00-147