OSHA News

OSHA Publishes Waste Treatment Facility 'Design for Safety' Case Study

(April 2, 2007)--A case study that describes how the Washington Group International incorporated its design for safety process into the construction of the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility in eastern Idaho was recently published on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Web site.
The study, "Washington Group International Designs and Builds a Mixed-Waste Treatment Facility," was developed through the OSHA and Washington Group International Alliance.

"I am extremely proud of the work between OSHA and the Washington Group on this project," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. "The Alliance program works to help employers and employees prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities in the workplace. As a result of the Washington Group's efforts, the positive impact on the safety and health of the project's employees and on its bottom-line costs was significant, including 3.3 million hours without a lost time injury or one day away from work."

Washington Group President and CEO Stephen Hanks said that integrating safety into all phases of a project is the moral obligation of every Washington Group employee. "Management and all employees should approach every project with the expectation of a perfect safety record." In 1997, British Nuclear Fuels, Limited, awarded the Washington Group a $300 million contract to engineer, procure and construct a nuclear-waste
treatment facility-the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility-to process nearly 65,000 cubic meters of nuclear waste stored at the Energy Department's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

OSHA worked with Washington Group International through the Alliance Program's Construction Roundtable Design for Safety Workgroup. The Alliance between OSHA and Washington Group International was signed in 2002, renewed in 2003 and again in 2006.

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