Heavy equipment demolishes the last part of the eastern third of the C-410 Feed Plant at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Paducah Site. In October, DOE cleanup contractor
LATA Kentucky reached a milestone of a million hours since mid-November 2010 without a lost workday case due to illness or injury.
PADUCAH, KY – The U.S. Department of Energy’s Paducah Site has reached a million hours of safe work toward completing cleanup objectives to reduce environmental risk.
The LATA Environmental Services of Kentucky Team, the Department’s prime cleanup contractor, in October reached a milestone of 1 million hours without a lost workday case due to job-related illness or injury. The achievement began in mid-November 2010.
Management and union officials say the accomplishment demonstrates the team’s prevailing “safety is a core value” attitude.
“Our team adheres to the concept that we will only achieve productivity through safety,” LATA Kentucky Project Manager Mark Duff said. “The million-hour milestone is significant for our project, particularly considering the hazardous nature of the activities conducted through that span of about a year associated with this achievement.”
“We preach safety-first, and we stand behind it,” said Donna Steele, President of United Steelworkers Local 550. “We start our monthly union meetings talking about it.”
LATA Kentucky senior managers lead off weekly all-hands meetings with safety information and statistics. Messages flow into pre-job briefings and monthly site-wide safety meetings.
Duff said the milestone exemplifies Conduct of Operations, the disciplined way LATA employees work safely at the Paducah Site, as well as the Integrated Safety Management System/Environmental Management System. ISMS/EMS involves defining work scope, analyzing hazards, developing and implementing hazard controls, working within those controls, and providing feedback and continuous improvement.
“Workers on this project care about each other and strive each day to keep the workplace free of accidents, injuries, and negative events,” said Eddie Magness, LATA Kentucky Environment, Safety and Health Manager.
LATA Kentucky began a five-year contract in 2010 for environmental remediation at the Paducah Site. Its teaming partners are parent firm Los Alamos Technical Associates, S.M. Stoller Corp., B&W Technical Services Group, Diversified Management Consultants LLC, Geosyntec Consultants, and MHF Services.