Nuclear worker: ‘Retaliation is very real at Hanford'

[bananas]

Source: KING 5

Whistle-blower Dave Lee, a veteran instrument technician at the site, said after he made repeated attempts to bring attention to an unsafe condition at Hanford, he was harassed, isolated, and made to clean closets instead of his regular duties fixing and maintaining complicated pieces of equipment.

<snip>

According to a newly released report from the Government Accountability Office, which is the investigative arm of Congress, Dave Lee’s experience isn’t isolated. The investigators found the U.S. Department of Energy routinely allows “unlawful retaliation” perpetrated by its contractors at sites such as Hanford.

“It’s clear the Department of Energy contractors are going to go to amazing lengths to send a signal to their employees that when you blow the whistle it is going to be the end of your career,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) in response to the GAO findings.

“The Dept. of Energy has utterly and completely failed to protect whistleblowers from retaliation,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA). “The currency of whistleblowers is the truth, but at the Dept. of Energy whistleblowers are paid with harassment and retaliation.”

<snip>

Read more: http://www.king5.com/news/local/investigations/nuclear-worker-retaliation-is-very-real-at-hanford/283622616

[Javaman]

1. I just finished an amazing book about Hanford.

It's called:

Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters by Kate Brown.

Holy crap I would never ever live in that area of the country even if I was paid a million dollars a minute.

what a total and complete fuck up by our government. They could have made it safe but they willfully didn't.

read the synopsis and reviews on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Plutopia-Families-American-Plutonium-Disasters/dp/0190233109

[maxsolomon]

3. In case anyone's offering

I would live in that area of the country (one of the best wine growing regions in the world), even in one of the Tri Cities, for substantially less than a million dollars a minute!

There's talk of making Hanford a National Monument.

[Javaman]

11. read the book first, you may change your mind about that. nt

[jalan48]

2. Is this something the Obama Administration can do something about?

[maxsolomon]

4. the retaliation? sure.

the plume of radiation seeping underground towards the Columbia river? no.

[jalan48]

5. I was referring to the whistle blower and how's he's being treated.

[maxsolomon]

6. i'm agreeing. it's the contractors doing it, not the DOE.

but the DOE isn't about to replace the contractor willy-nilly - the clean up has been going on for decades.

this has as much to do with human nature as it does institutional corruption.

[jalan48]

7. According to the article...

“The Dept. of Energy has utterly and completely failed to protect whistleblowers from retaliation,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA). “The currency of whistleblowers is the truth, but at the Dept. of Energy whistleblowers are paid with harassment and retaliation.”

[maxsolomon]

8. retaliation BY THE CONTRACTOR

they're covering their asses and trying to git r dun. typical for many workplaces: the nail that sticks up gets pounded down.

the DOE isn't retaliating, they're just failing to stop WRPS from doing it. so yes, the DOE, the GAO, and the Obama Admin could do something about it.

things are always falling apart at Hanford - a constant, rolling crisis.

[jalan48]

9. I guess if we don't know what is going on then there's less chance of problems.

Party on....

[Rex]

10. We are a country sometimes based on appearances and not reality.

Which fucks us over in the long run, every time.