Energy Department employees at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation "fear for their careers" if they raise safety concerns about the site, an advisory panel told the DOE last week.
The panel, whose eight members included DOE and private-sector employees, was appointed by Energy Secretary Federico Pena after a whistleblower group, the Government Accountability Project, complained to the DOE last August that Hanford employees were working in an atmosphere of fear. The panel's conclusions "appeared to confirm" those allegations, according to a report in The New York Times.
The panel also found that Hanford lacks a system to analyze safety problems and address them before they become serious, and that credibility issues continue with DOE statements about leaks from underground tanks storing nuclear waste.
Hanford manager John Wagoner praised the report and said he would appoint an executive to act on the panel's conclusions.
Meanwhile, the DOE yesterday said that it had evidence that 68 of 177 underground tanks were leaking; previously, it had said that 67 tanks were leaking. Waste from some of the leaks is believed to have reached groundwater 210 feet to 310 feet beneath the surface.
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