Industrial safety improvements at BNFL

BNFL, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels (BNF) plc of the United Kingdom, provides nuclear facility decontamination and decommissioning, environmental remediation, and nuclear waste management services to the government and industry in the United States. The majority of current work is for the US Department of Energy at several sites. Reactor decommissioning services and spent-fuel storage casks are being provided for nuclear utilities. BNFL, inc., and teammates on the several projects employ approximately1750 people. This paper describes the significant changes made quickly to considerably improve an unacceptable safety situation. Industrial safety performance of several projects was uneven, with two sites having unacceptable performance. The significant improvements were initiated in late April 1999, and by the end of the year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration total recordable injury and illness rate (TRIR) had improved by a factor of 2.2. Continued safety improvements are unexpected to improve performance by a factor of 6 within approximately5 yr. World-class safety performance is the ultimate objective