Mold and Misunderstandings. What Does it all Mean?

In the Fall of 2018, mold was discovered on some light fixtures and storage boxes located inside a lab's cold room at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Until the mold could be remediated from the cold room, the Building Manager placed a sign on the door of the cold room that read "Notice-Restricted Access-Contact Building Manager Prior...

When Success is not Well-Defined

In 2018 and again in 2019, external assessments found Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Nuclear Criticality Safety (NCS) Program had failed to implement and maintain full compliance with nuclear criticality safety administrative practices. Although both assessments did not identify unsafe practices regarding criticality safety, management was...

Assure Foreign Nationals are Approved for Subcontract Work

At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory a Foreign National was added to a subcontract as a collaborator on a project in which staff at an American university were acting as the principal investigators. The Foreign National was employed by the university and directly participating in the subcontracted work. It was discovered after work had begun, t...

When Communications Break Down and Assumptions are Made

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's (PNNL) Radiochemical Processing Laboratory (RPL), located in the Hanford 300 Area, is a Hazard Category II Non-Reactor Nuclear Facility. Cognizant Space Managers (CSMs) are assigned to steward and oversee all activities and operations in laboratory work spaces. PNNL considers CSMs a critical component in depl...

Electric Shock Drowning - Unknown Danger Lurking in the Water

In July, 2013 a 13 year old girl and her 8 year old brother died while swimming near a private dock in the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. About two hours later a 10-year-old boy died in a similar manner at Cherokee Lake, near Knoxville, Tennessee. His 11-year-old friend was pulled from the water and resuscitated but died early the following eveni...

Backover Fact Sheet - Kids and Cars

In the U.S., 50 children are backed over EVERY WEEK because a driver could not see them. The video demonstrates how a backover accident could happen involving children who cant bee seen behind a vehicle. The attached Fact Sheet from KidAndCars.org provides additional information including prevention and safety tips.

How Silly Putty Saved $1.8 Million at the Advanced Test Reactor

Summary:This article describes how a group of Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) workers completed a job that saved 17 ATR fuel elements from becoming scrap for a total savings of $1.8 million. The use of a nuclear-grade equivalent of silly putty called Reprorubber-putty allowed measurement of the depth of scratches on the inner most and outer most fuel...

Traits of a Healthy Nuclear Safety Culture

Traits of a Healthy Nuclear Safety Culture builds on the knowledge and experience gained since the publication of Principles of a Strong Nuclear Safety Culture in 2004. The change in the title reflects the commercial nuclear industry alignment of its own terminology with that used by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This document was develop...

Fatigue: Effects on Safe Work Performance and Health

This presentation, provided by the DOE Office of Analysis, includes information about the health and safety impacts of fatigue on workers and what employers can do to mitigate them. Short sleep duration, less than 7 hours per day, poor quality sleep, or sleep not aligned with circadian rhythms sleep, are linked to various negative health outcomes:...

Understanding Human Failure

This article outlines types of human failure and ways you can work to reduce these from happening on your job. It was originally published at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website, a national regulator for occupational safety and health in Great Britain, under their Leadership and Worker Involvement Toolkit initiative.
The video below...

Wasn't Me Entertaining Behavior Safety Video

This is a behavior based saftey video created for the Star Leasing Company.

Preventing Falls Through Skylights

More construction workers die from falls than from any other on-the-job injury. Fatal falls and serious injuries may result from inadequate guarding and fall protection for work around skylights. This video explains the events that led to a roofing supervisors death after he fell 30 feet through a warehouse roof skylight onto a floor. Photographs f...

MSA Distracted Driving Safety Video

Mission Support Alliance (MSA) Safety Video to help motivate safe attitudes.
Contained in the video are ideas you can implement to avoid distracted driving.

Types of distracted driving are:

Visual Distractions - Anything that takes your eyes off the road
Manual Distractions - Anything that takes your hands off the wheel
Cognitive D...

INL Forklift Lessons Learned Video

Recently INL experienced multiple forklift events at different facilities with in a weeks time frame. This video discusses those events and the initial lessons learned from them.

Mechanical Door Failure Operating Experience Prevents Possible Injury

After receiving and sharing OE-3-2014-03, "Mechanical Door Failures," in March of 2015, measures were put into place at the Idaho National Laboratory to ensure that employees were not in the direct line of fire in case of door failure. On October 26th, 2015 the measures prevented personnel from being injured when a overhead door sprocket came loo...