Thousands of Hanford workers lack whistleblower protections

KENNEWICK — Employees at the Hanford vitrification plant do not have the same whistleblower protection as many other employees on Department of Energy projects, according to a new report.

The DOE Office of Inspector General released a report Tuesday looking at whether DOE had added enhanced whistleblower protections approved by Congress to its contracts.

Among key enhancements was changing the statute of limitations for reporting suspected retaliation from 90 days after the employee knew of it to three years after the retaliation took place.

The inspector general report looked at 30 of DOE’s largest contracts, totaling $386 billion.

It found that all but two had the new requirements that took effect July 2013.

One holdout was Bechtel National, the contractor building the $17 billion vitrification plant at the Hanford nuclear reservation. The second was URS-CH2M Oak Ridge, or UCOR, a contractor performing environmental cleanup in Tennessee.

Bechtel National and its major subcontractors employ about 2,900 workers.

The vitrification plant project has been the target of serious whistleblower complaints in the past.

One former manager received a $4.1 million settlement in 2015 in a whistleblower lawsuit.

Another complaint by former managers started a case that ended in 2016 with Bechtel and its primary subcontractor, Aecom, agreeing to pay $125 million to the federal government to resolve allegations, with some of the money going to three former managers.

Congress increased protection

The legislation passed by Congress in 2013 was intended to provide greater whistleblower protection for government contractor and subcontractor employees who believe they have been retaliated against after disclosing wrongdoing.

But it was not retroactive to existing contracts, like the one Bechtel was awarded in 2000 to build and start up a plant to turn much of 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste at the Hanford site into a stable glass form for disposal.

The waste is left from the past production of plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

DOE was required to make “best efforts” to add the new whistleblower requirements when major modifications are made to existing contracts, according to the inspector general report.

DOE and Bechtel discussed the new whistleblower protections in modifications of Bechtel’s vit plant contract in 2016.

The modifications were needed when DOE switched to a new plan for treating waste at the plant, starting with treatment of low activity radioactive waste and delaying completion of buildings that would handle high level radioactive waste.

The modifications extended the contract through 2022 and increased the contract cost by more than $3 billion, according to the inspector general report.

However, the new protections were not added to the contract.

DOE officials said they do not have the unilateral right to insert the protections into contracts and must have agreement from the contractor, according to the inspector general report.

DOE also failed to persuade the Tennessee contractor to add protections during a 2015 contract modification valued at about $774 million that extended the contract until 2020.

Bechtel says it values safety

In addition to changing new statute of limitations protections, the whistleblower protections approved by Congress provided employees more flexibility in appealing decisions, including seeking review of a DOE decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

The new law also changed the investigating agency from the DOE Office of Hearings and Appeals to the Office of Inspector General, according to the report.

However, Bechtel told its employees as recently as September that there were many ways employees could raise concerns, including by calling or emailing the DOE Office of Inspector General hotline.

They may file claims anonymously, said Staci West, communications manager for Bechtel at the vit plant.

In addition, a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year extended the statute of limitations on one way that whistleblowers can seek help, the False Claims Act.

In some cases, employees could have six to 10 years after a violation happened to file a claim.

Bechtel is committed to maintaining a work environment that encourages employees to raise concerns without fear of retaliation, West said.

“A strong nuclear safety and quality culture is critical as we move forward to start up the first phase of the vit plant by 2023,” she said.

Whistleblower cases

Past high profile whistleblower cases at the vitrification plant have included the $4.1 million settlement in 2015 to Walter Tamosaitis, the former research and technology manager for the plant.

He had sued URS, who was his employer and the primary vit plant subcontractor. After Aecom acquired URS in 2014, it moved toward a settlement before the case went to trial in federal court.

Aecom said it settled to avoid the cost and distraction of litigation related to events that occurred more than five years earlier. Both Aecom and Bechtel denied they retaliated against Tamosaitis.

Tamosaitis had raised technical issues about the safe operation of the plant under construction in 2010 and whether they had been resolved.

Bechtel National was working to meet a deadline to resolve technical issues. At stake was a substantial portion of a DOE incentive payment of $6 million to be split between Bechtel and URS, according to the lawsuit.

Tamosaitis was removed from the project and escorted from his office a few days after raising concerns, according to the lawsuit.

Bechtel and Aecom said his assignment at the vitrification plant had ended and that he was removed after he sent an email that offended consultants on the project.

Tamosaitis initially responded to his removal by sending a letter to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which launched an investigation into safety culture — the attitudes toward and importance of safety.

DOE resolved the board’s resulting safety culture concerns, which had been expanded across the DOE national complex, this summer.

In 2016, Bechtel National and Aecom agreed to pay $125 million to settle a Department of Justice case that started with a sealed complaint filed in federal court in 2013 by Tamosaitis, Donna Busche and Gary Brunson — all key former managers on the vitrification plant project.

They alleged that for more than a decade, the two companies charged DOE for materials and work that did not meet the exacting standards required for nuclear facilities because of safety concerns.

The settlement agreement also resolved allegations that Bechtel illegally used taxpayer dollars to lobby Congress for money for Bechtel’s work at the plant.

The three former managers were eligible to receive 15 percent to 25 percent of the settlement under the False Claims Act, which allows whistleblowers to collect a portion of any damages awarded.

Bechtel said in 2016 that it had performed its work ethically and professionally and a protracted legal battle was not in the best interest of the vitrification plant project.

Aecom pointed out the alleged events occurred before it bought URS.