Oak Ridge Manager Cited for Safety Violations

The U.S. Energy Department has reprimanded and fined the University of Tennessee-Battelle LLC for safety violations at the Oak Ridge nuclear weapons complex in Tennessee, the Associated Press reported Friday (see GSN, July 27).

A $100,000 fine is being levied for the facility manager’s failures to comply with radioactive material inventory limits at storage facilities last year, the agency announced.

The handling errors occurred at Oak Ridge and at another building on the neighboring Y-12 nuclear weapons plant site. The department said the penalty could have been higher, but that the nonprofit entity received credit for responding promptly to the errors.

“Once UT-Battelle recognized that multiple facilities with radioactive material inventory problems existed, they expanded their internal investigation and took comprehensive corrective actions,” the agency said in a statement (Associated Press, Dec. 16)

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