Report Says Hanford Management Retaliates Against Whistleblowers

A new investigative report suggests that Hanford workers who have brought to light what they believe are safety concerns are being targeted.

KING-5 TV in Seattle says several long-time Hanford workers have been fired for attempting to call attention to what the workers said were either safety concerns, or their employer ignoring safety guidelines and instructions.

They include long-time workers who often held management positions, and had received performance awards; not low paid or disgruntled employees.

KING-5 followed up with the case of former tank farm worker Shelly Doss, who was let go by Washington River Protection Services in 2011, she says, after she was asked to lie about filling out important paperwork certifying she had inspected numerous wells that lead groundwater to the Hanford site.   According to KING-5:

Her manager urged her to sign an official document to be sent to the state showing she had inspected dozens of wells that lead to groundwater at the site. In fact, Doss was not able to locate the wells and did not inspect them. She refused to sign the paperwork.

According to Doss, the violations she found were not a matter of slightly different interpretations of safety rules.

"...her WRPS bosses wanted Doss to ignore six major violations she flagged in a two-year period. Her manager removed her from all six of the projects until she had no work duties left.

"They were angry that I brought up these violations. They were very angry because they had been getting away with it," she said.

In July 2014, the Department of Labor and Industries ruled Doss had been illegally fired, and was to be reinstated and fully reimbursed over her job, but WRPS has yet to re-hire her.  They had 30 days to appeal, but they were supposed to reinstate her regardless of any such appeals.  It hasn't yet happened.

KING-5 also shared the stories of 44-year Hanford vet Dr. Walter Tamosaitis, who was similarly stripped of all responsibility after blowing the whistle on safety and design concerns.  He was eventually given a storeroom for an office, without a working phone, and eventually fired by subcontractor URS.   URS offered him a settlement package, but only if he dropped any and all whistleblower activities and lawsuits.

KING-5 also followed up on fired worker Donna Busche.  She had concerns about certain design elements of the VIT Plant, which will treat and glassify nuclear waste at Hanford. According to KING-5:

"Similarly, URS employee Donna Busche was fired in February. She, too, had raised concerns about the WTP's design and alleged she was punished by her employer as a result. Busche was a key environmental and nuclear safety manager with decades of experience."

These workers, and others, according to KING-5, share a similar thread.   Over the last decade,  the safety culture has begun to change at Hanford, and not for the better.  While NOT all subcontractors are being pointed at, these workers say they're being "brainwashed" to look the other way, do their job, and be quiet - regardless of circumstances.     As for responses from some of the afore-mentioned businesses?   According to KING-5:

"As for WRPS, the company declined KING 5's requests for an on camera interview to discuss the Doss case. This is not surprising. In 18 months of reporting on Hanford, WRPS has refused every KING 5 request for an on camera interview."