Uniform safety training and procedures across the Hanford nuclear reservation could make it a safer place to work, the Hanford Advisory Board said in advice to the Department of Energy.

"The mobility of the Hanford workforce as it moves from project to project makes obvious the need for uniformity of safety rules and procedures, especially where compliance with procedures is mandatory," said the board in written advice that also will be sent to Hanford regulators. "Lack of uniformity has the potential to create uncertainty for workers and to put them in jeopardy."

Even if each contractor develops safety training and respiratory protection programs that meet DOE requirements, there is enough difference between them to add to worker confusion, the board said.

Procedures can be "confusing, contradictory and difficult for workers to implement," the board said.

Part of the problem is that Hanford changes contractors like some people change shirts, said Keith Smith, chairman of the board's Health, Safety and Environmental Protection Committee. DOE is in the process of awarding three new contracts, including the tank closure contract awarded this month.

Smith cited the example of Washington Closure Hanford, which started work at Hanford in August 2005 and within its first 18 months of operations had numerous problems, including near misses with electrical safety, radioactive tritium tracked out of a radiological work area and an independent survey that found workers leery of raising safety issues.

The company's safety culture has since turned around "but there was a real gap there for a while and someone could have been seriously injured," Smith said.

The large numbers of small subcontractors doing work on the site also adds to safety training inconsistencies, board members said. In some cases workers for small business subcontractors are not getting the same safety training given to workers at prime contractors, Smith said.

In some cases workers for different contractors are working side by side under different safety requirements and procedures, board members said.

Contractors continue to have different policies for dealing with beryllium, a metal that can cause an incurable lung disease in workers who have an allergylike reaction to it, said board member Gerald Pollet.

One contractor may assign a worker who is known to have the sensitivity to beryllium to work in a building that another contractor considers unsafe for sensitized workers because of the possibility that it contains beryllium-contaminated dust from past work, Pollet said.

Uniform sitewide safety training is past due, said Mike Keizer, who represents the Central Washington Building Trades Council on the board. It will be particularly helpful for construction workers who move from project to project under different contractors.

Hanford already has an "enviable" safety record compared to similar industrial projects, the board acknowledged in its advice. But the unusual hazards, such as high level radioactive waste, make its safety critical, both for workers and also for maintaining public support.

Putting the responsibility for formulating a new uniform safety system into the new mission support contract is a step in the right direction, the board said. The new contractor, who has yet to be named, will take over site services such as security and road maintenance now done under the Fluor Hanford contract that expires this fall.

But the board said DOE needs to take the concept further. Among its recommendations is creating a centralized database available to all contractors that tracks the safety qualifications and training of each worker.

All contractors and subcontractors should be required to participate in the same monthly safety council meeting, the board said.

It also recommended that a uniform amount for safety training be assigned in all contract and subcontract competitions to prevent bidders from reducing the price by cutting corners on safety.

Among the programs that should be included in a sitewide safety program are uniform respiratory protection, uniform radiation worker training and uniform beryllium safety standards and procedures, the board said. It also called for uniform safety training and implementation of integrated safety management systems, which are used to predict what hazards may be encountered and develop response plans before work begins.

DOE already is working on a uniform lockout-tagout electrical safety program, which provides procedures for making sure electricity is shut off and equipment properly tagged to warn workers and prevent electrical shocks or other injuries during work on the equipment or nearby.

"DOE appreciates and agrees with the HAB advice and has previously incorporated requirements for the development and use of common safety processes and training into the new Hanford contracts," said Doug Shoop, deputy manager of DOE's Hanford Richland Operations Office, in a statement.