Hanford injury reports doubted

Contractors have underreported the number of injuries and illnesses at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and other nuclear-cleanup projects, creating a false image of safety and possibly masking threats to workers, according to a federal audit.

The inaccuracies, which had gone undetected by the federal department responsible for overseeing the Hanford cleanup, also helped boost payments to contractors by millions of dollars, critics charged yesterday.

The revelations have Washington's senators, watchdog groups and the Department of Energy's Inspector General's Office, which performed the audit, calling for improvements at Hanford and elsewhere.

"The Department of Energy cannot credibly claim that worker safety at nuclear-waste cleanup sites is a top priority if it can't accurately track work-related injuries and illnesses," said Sen. Maria Cantwell. "I hope and expect the DOE will take the results of this audit to heart."

When investigators compared records maintained by 10 contractors at sites across the country with an Energy Department database, they discovered large discrepancies with nine of the companies, including Hanford's three biggest contractors.

The data are used to determine the effectiveness of safety programs, identify hazards and trends in safety problems, and in some cases calculate how much is paid to contractors working on big-money projects.

Bechtel National, the company building a massive plant for treating deadly waste stored in Hanford's leaky tanks, reported 1,113 days of "restricted work activity" in its own database, but only 552 days in the government's for 2002.

And CH2M Hill Hanford Group, the company responsible for emptying the tanks, reported 404 days of lost work because of accidents and illness in 2002, whereas the government data showed 303 days.

"Tens of millions are paid out in bonuses to contactors every year for driving their safety records down," said Tom Carpenter, nuclear program director for the Government Accountability Project, a watchdog group. "The department 'incentivizes' underreporting ... while at the same time not overseeing the quality of the data."

Energy Department officials said the agreements are generally structured so contractors can lose money for poor safety performance, but do not receive bonuses for their record. They were not aware of any of the Hanford contractors reviewed in the audit being docked for accidents.

The audit reviewed records for slightly more than three years, beginning in 2000.

The report, made public yesterday, was sent Friday to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

The audit attributed the differences in reported injuries and illnesses "to weaknesses in the department's quality-assurance process," and recommended that the data be reviewed quarterly.

The report also found that even when mistakes were identified, they weren't always fixed.

Hanford officials and contractors previously were made aware of some of the findings in the audit and have resolved some of the problems, they said, including more frequent reviews to make sure the data match up.

"We responded even before the report was issued," said Joy Turner, spokeswoman for CH2M Hill. "We made sure the problem was corrected."

Federal and state officials emphasized that there are additional programs in place to catch safety problems and identify worrisome trends.

The Energy Department "has the ability to see what is going on in the field beyond what the contractor reports," said Erik Olds, spokesman for the federal Office of River Protection, which works with Bechtel National and CH2M Hill.

"We do watch on a daily basis the work that is going on," he said. "We're working to improve the quality of our oversight."

The third contractor reviewed was Fluor Hanford, whose contract includes cleanup work along the Columbia River portion of the site. In 2000, Fluor reported 37 lost-work days, but the government database shows only one.

In 2002, the contractor tallied 1,465 days of restricted work activity, while the official record has only 1,336.

Carpenter wants to see contractors pay back any money earned based on "fraudulent" underreporting of injuries or illness.

Olds said the Energy Department will not penalize contractors for the discrepancies.

There have been growing concerns about safety issues at Hanford, particularly surrounding projects to transfer the tank waste and vitrify it -- trapping it in a glasslike substance. The former bomb-making site near Richland is located on 586 square miles and is the nation's largest nuclear-waste cleanup site.

Watchdog groups maintain that site officials have played down and underreported the harm caused to workers exposed to potentially dangerous vapors seeping from the tanks.

The inspector general's report, Carpenter said, helps support their claims, although he believes the problem is worse than the audit revealed.

"We're convinced that this audit report simply scratches the surface," he said.

P-I reporter Lisa Stiffler can be reached at 206-448-8042 or lisastiffler@seattlepi.com

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