The Department of Energy is being fined $115,000 for violations related to asbestos management after demolishing Hanford nuclear reservation buildings in 2009 and 2010.
The EPA inspector general issued an early-warning report in December 2011, saying that removal of asbestos in certain ways at Hanford and elsewhere potentially threatened health and safety. The Hanford violations were discovered as a result of an EPA inspection and evaluation of compliance at Hanford with asbestos management rules that followed in 2012. In March DOE and its regulators agreed to restrict the use of heavy equipment to demolish buildings that still have asbestos out of concern for worker health. |
