May is National Electrical Safety Month
Electrical safety is part of everything we do at work and at home. That was one of the key messages Laboratory Director Pete Nanos conveyed to employees Wednesday at an all-employee meeting. He also said the Laboratory’s performance in electrical safety needs to improve.
The mandatory meeting was called to highlight a Labwide push to raise awareness of electrical safety in May, which also is national Electrical Safety Month.
During the nearly two-hour meeting, Nanos referenced a letter written by Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman about electrical safety issues complex-wide. Bodman listed a number of electrical safety occurrences that have occurred across the DOE complex, such as inadequate supervision and oversight, inadequate work planning and training of personnel and failure to perform zero-energy checks. The letter can be seen by cliicking here. “The complex is on notice about electrical safety.
” Nanos told Laboratory workers in the Administration Building Auditorium and employees watching on LABNET Channel 9. “Our attitudes affect not only our performance but the performance of others. We’re not the worst, and we could be the best.”
“Electrical safety is something we all intuitively know about,” he said. Nanos told several personal safety stories and discussed the steps individuals need to take to ensure no one gets hurt.
He also noted members of the Lab’s Electrical Safety Committee and told the audience to use them more often. A link to the committee’s Web page can be found at http://int.lanl.gov/safety/esc/esc.shtml online.
Don Cobb, acting deputy Laboratory director, followed the director and noted that electricity is unforgiving. “Electrical safety, unlike other safety processes like radiological or construction safety, covers the entire facility. Wherever you work, electrical safety is important,” Cobb said. He then provided details of some of recent incidents, including several electrical shocks sustained by non-electrical workers.
Those incidents included an International, Space and Response (ISR) Division employee who contacted 280 volts while trying to dim the lights in the Nonproliferation and International Security Center at TA-3; a Nuclear Materials Technology (NMT) Division employee who unplugged a vacuum pump; a Materials Science and Technology (MST) Division employee who received a 220-volt shock while removing wastewater from a container at the Sigma Facility; and a KSL Services pipefitter who touched a 480-volt welding machine and a metal table in November.
A video was shown of the lessons learned from some of these incidents.
Cobb warned that with students beginning to arrive at Los Alamos this month, mentors should carefully supervise their work. He emphasized that work assigned to students should be evaluated based on hazards, complexity, training and qualifications of the student. Additional training classes, such as the General Employee Training and the Electrical Safety Program have been added with the anticipated arrival of summer students.
Cobb also highlighted the Laboratory’s Electrical Safety Month activities, which will include nested safety committee meeting discussions about local electrical concerns; management walkarounds on electrical safety using new guidance cards; and an increased focus on electrical safety in employee publications and newsletters.
Employees should recognize and follow stop-work procedures if they think something is unsafe, Cobb said, and follow all procedures and hazard controls.
Lloyd Gordon, electrical safety officer at the Los Alamos Neutron Science (LANSCE) Center at TA-53, presented viewgraphs showing many examples of what employees, supervisors and managers should be looking for everyday when it comes to electrical safety. To download the PowerPoint presentation click here.
Gordon said that the electrical safety program at the Laboratory is one of the complex’s best and is emulated by others. He posed the question, “Why is there a problem here then?” He responded that out of all the NNSA sites, Los Alamos has the most electrical workers -- about 4,000 —and the greatest diversity and number of electrical hazards in some of the oldest facilities and with some of the oldest equipment.
Gordon highlighted in his briefing some electrical hazards examples that should be eliminated from the work force. They include frayed or damaged cords, daisy chaining extension cords or multi-outlet strips, inadequate space heaters or space heaters plugged into extension cords. He also noted that some electrical hazards result from poor electrical housekeeping, blocking breaker panels and electrical equipment, or equipment with its wiring exposed.
Gordon said that all electrical equipment must be approved by a nationally recognized testing laboratory, such as Underwriter’s Laboratory, or approved by an electrical safety officer.
Gordon also provided insight into proper handling of batteries, ladders and other equipment and how to spot and avoid downed power lines. A brief description of what to do during a lightning storm rounded out his talk.
The all-employee meeting will be rebroadcast on LABNET Channel 10 beginning today. To view the schedule, click here.