Company fires scientist who warned of Hanford waste site problems

[n2doc]

By Ralph Vartabedian
October 3, 2013, 9:30 p.m.
When senior scientist Walter Tamosaitis warned in 2011 about fundamental design flaws at the nation's largest facility to treat radioactive waste in Hanford, Wash., he was assigned to work in a basement room without office furniture or a telephone.

On Wednesday, Tamosaitis, an employee of San Francisco-based URS Corp., was laid off from his job after 44 years with the company.

The concerns that Tamosaitis raised two years ago about the design of the waste treatment plant, a $12.3-billion industrial complex that would turn highly radioactive sludge into glass, were validated by federal investigators. Construction of the plant was halted and the Energy Department is trying to address a wide range of problems with the design.

The Hanford site is the nation's most contaminated property, holding 56 million gallons of highly radioactive sludge in underground tanks, some of which are leaking. The complex sits on a plateau above the Columbia River, which could be threatened if the cleanup fails to contain the tank waste.

more

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-hanford-layoff-20131004,0,1311785.story

[pscot]

1. The never-ending story

Fifty years of waste, fraud and abuse and the saga continues.

[PamW]

2. He had an opportunity to be heard..

Tamosaitis had an opportunity to be heard. He met personally with Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, an MIT Professor of Physics.

Moniz is extremely bright. If Tamosaitis couldn't make his case to Secretary Moniz, then I would assume he didn't have much of a case.

In any case, Hanford has nothing to do with commercial nuclear power. Hanford was purely a facility for making materials for the US nuclear weapons program, and all the waste at Hanford is weapons waste. Therefore, it is totally the responsibility of the US Government.

PamW

[ret5hd]

3. Correct me if I am wrong:

From the OP:

"The concerns that Tamosaitis raised two years ago about the design of the waste treatment plant, a $12.3-billion industrial complex that would turn highly radioactive sludge into glass, were validated by federal investigators. Construction of the plant was halted and the Energy Department is trying to address a wide range of problems with the design."

And your contention is that Tamosaitis didn't have a case???

[PamW]

4. I'm skeptical.

The article states that his concerns were validated.

However, I checked with DOE and found no evidence that the problems were those raised by Tamosaitas.

It's true that DOE / Bechtel are having problems in the building of the plant. Suppliers are apparently not documenting when they deviate from the approved design. This has been going on for some time now.

I don't believe there is anything wrong with the design itself. The original reprocessing plants built by DuPont at Hanford worked just fine.

This is an old report. Tamosaitis filed a lawsuit on this and had his day in Court; and his lawsuit was DISMISSED:

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/10/12/2133043/hanford-whistleblowers-case-dismissed.html

PamW

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Well, as long as DOE says there are no problems..........

[kristopher]

6. You "checked with DOE'"?

And, instead of posting a link to a DOE website that actually gives data to support the attempt you are making to whitewash the nuclear waste industry, you post a link saying Tamosaitis' lawsuit had been dismissed. Your clear and obvious implication being that the court vindicated the nuclear waster industry in regard to Tamosaitis' concerns about safety.

It didn't.

The nuclear waste industry found a technicality related to timing of the way Tamosaitis' wrongful dismissal lawsuit was pursued by his lawyer. You reference has absolutely no bearing on the merits of his wrongful dismissal lawsuit nor on the validity of the safety issues at Hanford that he brought to light.

This week, Suko ruled that Tamosaitis had not followed requirements of the Energy Reorganization Act requiring that the Department of Labor have a full year to issue a decision before it is moved to federal court.

The claim was amended to name URS Energy and Construction, rather than URS Inc., after it was filed, and the clock on the year with the Department of Labor started then, the ruling found.

But even if that was not the case, URS was not responsible for dismissing Tamosaitis, Suko found.

URS, a subcontractor to Bechtel National, was acting on the instructions of Bechtel National, Suko said in court documents.

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/10/12/2133043/hanford-whistleblowers-case-dismissed.html#storylink=cpy