Lab contractor cited for 2022 glove box breach

Nov. 3—The federal agency that oversees the country's nuclear weapons has issued a preliminary violation notice to Los Alamos National Laboratory's primary contractor for a glove box breach in 2022 that contaminated two workers and required one of them to undergo medical treatment.

The incident was deemed serious enough for the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration to cite Triad National Security for a lapse in worker safety.

The January 2022 breach in a sealed compartment — which has gloves attached so workers can handle radioactive material — contaminated the protective equipment and skin of two workers, according to a government watchdog's report.

One of the workers showed a high enough exposure to require treatment at the lab's occupational medicine clinic.

"While Triad's evaluation assigned no dose to the workers, the release of radioactive material was a near miss to a significant dose," agency Administrator Jill Hruby wrote in a letter to lab Director Thom Mason, who heads Triad.

The incident was "of high safety significance" and warranted a $641,000 penalty, Hruby wrote.

However, the agency will waive the penalty because Triad already lost $1.6 million in contract fees due to deficiencies assessed for 2022, she wrote.

Glove box breaches have become more frequent in recent years as the lab gears up to produce 30 bowling ball-sized plutonium cores, or pits, that can detonate warheads. But this mishap was the last reported instance of an exposed worker needing medical treatment.

In an email, spokesman Steven Horak wrote the lab will do what the preliminary violation notice suggests.

"Los Alamos National Laboratory is deeply committed to the safety of our employees and began taking immediate actions to directly address the event that occurred in January 2022," Horak wrote. "Since that time, we have taken several additional actions, and worked with NNSA to help prevent similar occurrences going forward."

This the second violation notice the agency has issued to Triad this year.

In June, the agency cited the contractor for four incidents in 2021. And as with this notice, the penalties were waived because Triad had $1.4 million deducted from its contract fees due to deficiencies.

The first of these incidents happened on Feb. 11, 2021, when Triad did not confirm fissionable material placed in a drop box complied with the safety posting. As a result, the material exceeded the posted criticality safety limits.

The second was on March 3, 2021, when a worker did not conduct required self-monitoring after pulling out from the gloves attached to the sealed compartment in which radioactive material is handled. As a result, the worker didn't recognize a breached glove nor the contamination on his hands, and then spread it to co-workers.

On March 31, 2021, Triad did not inform the operations center the lab's vault baths — used to cool certain plutonium containers — needed filling. The second mistake occurred when a worker jammed open a spring-closed valve, bypassing a safety feature, and then left for another task.

Water poured through the valve, causing the baths to overflow. An alarm went off, but it failed to transmit to the operations center, whose personnel were unaware the baths were being filled. The overflow wasn't discovered for several hours, and by then, 1,800 gallons had spilled.

On July 19, 2021, Triad assigned unqualified workers to fill the vault baths who turned the valves in the wrong sequence. Misaligned valves caused water to spill onto the floor and flow into an air vent and a glove box on a lower floor.

An anti-nuclear critic said the gravity of these violation notices should not be underestimated.

"These are issued only for serious reasons; they are not routine," said Greg Mello, executive director of Los Alamos Study Group. "The first one was bad enough. Now we have another one."

Mello disagreed with Hruby waiving the penalties, saying fines should be imposed on senior staff members personally so they have an incentive to improve safety.

Hruby issuing a written reprimand, despite being an ally of Mason, indicates how serious the lapses are, Mello said.

"So for her to do this is significant," he said.