RICHLAND, Wash. – The National Safety Council recently awarded the EM Hanford Site’s 222-S Laboratory the Safety Leadership Award for achieving more than five consecutive years without a recordable or lost-workday injury.

The award was given to tank operations contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS). A recordable injury is any work-related injury that results in medical treatment beyond first aid.

“The work done at the 222-S lab is very important, as the lab handles highly radioactive samples for analysis,” said Richard Valle, tank farms program manager with EM’s Office of River Protection. “Building a safety culture begins with a well-trained workforce. Being able to do it for more than five years in a row without an issue is a testament to the safety mindset of the team.”

Don Hardy, WRPS laboratory manager, said the award is an honor truly deserved by the laboratory staff.

“Accomplishments like this only happen when the entire team buys into the concept that workplace safety is a culture that is embedded in everything we do,” Hardy said.

The laboratory is a 70,000-square-foot full-service analytical facility that handles samples for purposes of organic, inorganic, and radio-chemistry analyses. The laboratory complex contains more than 100 pieces of analytical equipment, 156 fume hoods, and 46 manipulators to perform work. Similar to the operation and play of a claw crane game, manipulators allow workers to extend the dexterity of human hands into an often-hazardous environment, improving safety by allowing them to conduct work remotely.

The laboratory has many roles, which include testing of waste compatibility and physical characteristics to support tank-to-tank waste transfers, and performing corrosion rate studies and chemical testing to support tank corrosion inhibition.

The council is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to eliminate preventable deaths at work, in homes and communities, and on the road through leadership, research, education, and advocacy.