Published at 11:11, Thursday, 16 February 2012

SELLAFIELD has drawn an ace in its drive for ultimate safety.

And the site’s ‘near-miss’ card is getting credit for the site chalking up another milestone in safety performance in a plant under construction.

Latest achievement is in EPS3, a new intermediate level waste store currently being build.

Sellafield Ltd and main contractors Laing O’Rourke (LOR) have completed two years without a lost time accident.

Although optimum safety has been achieved over 24 months, Sellafield Ltd’s project manager Ewan Smith credits a significant increase in the number of hazard and near-miss cards raised by members of the workforce in the last year.

Says Ewan: “The fact that more and more cards are being raised demonstrates that immediate corrective action is being taken by individuals spotting the hazard. It is this behaviour that we need to build on in order to achieve the ultimate mission of a zero event workplace.”

At all levels, said EPS3 safety advisor Ian Tongue, the trick was in taking responsibility for assessing risk, spotting hazards – and removing them.

The site’s peer-to-peer observation process along with the LOR hazard and near-miss process were key to the achievement.

EPS3 will provide additional capacity to support Sellafield’s existing radioactive waste stores, taking arisings from both reprocessing and site clean up work.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk