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Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson today announced the initial observations of the Department of Energy (DOE) team investigating environmental, safety and health issues at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Kentucky. A summary of the team's observations and the corrective actions ordered by Secretary Richardson in response are attached (PDF).

"The team identified areas that need improvement but found no imminent hazards to the workers or the public and confirmed that the general radiation hazards are low and that radiation protection programs at Paducah have improved over the past decade," said Secretary Richardson. "At the same time, we don't have to wait for their final report to start work on corrective actions in the areas where the team has identified room for improvement."

The team's observations include:

• Confirming that the present health risk from low-enriched uranium is relatively small, but more attention by site management is needed to ensure that radiation exposures are limited to levels as low as can be reasonably achieved.

• While considerably improved from the past, radiation-contamination control practices need to be further tightened, including providing additional necessary worker training, improved onsite and offsite posting and adherance to specified work-control procedures.

• Regarding an existing cleanup agreement between the Department of Energy, the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the Environmental Protection Agency, the team identified opportunities for revising the agreement to accelerate cleanup schedules and other milestones.

• The level of DOE and contractor oversight of environment, safety and health performance needs to be upgraded so as to ensure increased management accountability.

Based on the preliminary observations and to address employee questions regarding ongoing operations, Secretary Richardson on September 8 ordered a one-day stand down of operations at the site to refocus management and worker attention on conduct of operations and environment, safety and health requirements and procedures. The stand down served to direct overall attention to the weaknesses identified by the investigative team regarding operating controls, the posting of hazards and the need for increased training. The stand down also provided an opportunity to address workers' questions and have discussions on both individual concerns as well as departmental expectations for worker safety.

In response to both the investigative team's observations and the stand down, Secretary Richardson directed a series of corrective actions that will be taken immediately. These corrective actions include:

• Initiating an independent review of the contractor radiation protection program and its implementation at Paducah with an eye toward any needed upgrades.

• Examining existing Commonwealth of Kentucky and U.S. Enrichment Corporation site air monitoring systems to confirm that these systems would record any significant DOE contribution to overall site emissions. Additional environmental sampling and analysis both onsite and offsite will be conducted.

• Expanding worker training programs at the site to include more comprehensive treatment of radiation protection practices and environmental protection, particularly for those who supervise subcontractors.

• Strengthening the federal resources at the site by stationing two full-time DOE facility representatives at Paducah who will provide regular surveillance of operations and safety practices.

The investigation currently being completed is the first phase of a two-phase review ordered by Secretary Richardson on August 8. The first phase of the onsite investigation is focusing on issues and concerns from the past 10 years. The second phase will involve examining longer-term legacy environment, safety and health issues prior to 1990 and will draw upon other ongoing reviews in response to the Secretary's Action Plan (in PDF).

The 23-member independent investigation team completed their initial data collection phase on September 3. Team members reviewed documents, conducted numerous interviews with officials and workers, inspected the site, conducted radiological surveys and collected extensive environmental samples. The samples collected are being analyzed by an independent laboratory. Following an assessment of the data collected, the team will return to Paducah later this month to validate the accuracy of their findings. It is expected that the phase-one report will be submitted to Secretary Richardson by early October.

The investigation team has also identified key records from past operations at Paducah. The records detail historic management of certain environment, safety and health concerns at the site, including those associated with processing of contaminated recycled uranium feed material. The team will pursue its investigation of these issues in the course of its phase-two review.

- DOE -

R-99-244