WASHINGTON, D.C. – Department officials this month agreed to establish a new institute to strengthen worker safety that employs the capabilities of the existing offices of Environmental Management (EM) and Enterprise Assessments (EA) training facilities to benefit the DOE complex. 

   EA Director Glenn Podonsky, who is responsible for safety assessments and enforcement within the Department, and EM Assistant Secretary Monica Regalbuto this month approved the framework for the DOE Training Institute (DTI). DTI represents a partnership between the DOE National Training Center (NTC) and the EM Richland Operations Office’s (RL) Volpentest Hazardous Materials Management and Emergency Response (HAMMER) Federal Training Center at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Existing training expertise, course materials, and support are now available nationally to DOE and its contractors as a part of the DTI. 

   Podonsky said the institute is a stellar example of DOE program and site offices, labor, and others working together for the same goal of worker health and safety.

   “What we’re seeing with this relationship…is people working together for the betterment of worker safety, and that’s under Secretary Moniz’s leadership,” he said.

   Regalbuto highlighted HAMMER’s value to EM and emphasized the importance of a shared goal everyone is part of under the institute: a focus on worker safety.

   “Our missions may be different, our day-to-day jobs may be different, but what is not different is the commonality that worker safety is our No. 1 priority,” she said, adding that the Department doesn’t put schedules ahead of safety, period. “That’s the way it is.”

   The DTI is a continuation and formalization of the highly successful partnership established between RL/HAMMER and the NTC over the last several years. Core competencies and services of each training organization are maintained while a broader enterprise-wide training focus is pursued to reduce training redundancies, improve training quality, and work to improve core training systems. The institute will focus on: 

Reciprocity for training courses, which reduces redundant training and improves training quality over time;
Common core training, which is a collection of DOE courses that apply the best fundamental training available to promote excellence while reducing duplicative training development and maintenance costs. Site- and contractor-specific gap training can be added to course content;
A national instructor certification program with complex-wide access to NTC, HAMMER, and the Energy Facility Contractors Group-sponsored DTI course materials; and
Training tools and techniques that are best practices and improve existing systems across the complex.

   Stacy Charboneau, RL’s manager, applauded DOE for its vision and commitment to safety that led to the creation of the institute. 

   “I’m very excited that under the DTI we’re going to be able to strengthen the workforce through that effective training, building upon the highly successful models of HAMMER and NTC and really building upon that labor-management partnership that has grown and grown since the advent of HAMMER 24 years ago,” Charboneau said. HAMMER is owned by RL and operated by the Mission Support Alliance, LLC.

   The institute is the result of a four-year team effort that will aid the entire Department, according to Karen Boardman, NTC director.

   “I believe what is being established here with the DTI with HAMMER and NTC will benefit all of DOE,” she said. “It is meant to be an enterprise solution with endless possibilities.” 

   Institute officials said collaboration among federal staff, HAMMER, NTC, contractors, and labor will continue as the group implements the DTI Strategic Plan and expands support to the DOE enterprise. For additional information, contact the NTC’s Karen Boardman at (505) 845-6444 or RL’s Ashley Morris at (509) 376-3201.