Reports slams Hanford contractors
SPOKANE, Wash. — The U.S. Department of Energy’s inspector general is slamming two contractors for failing to fully cooperate in an investigation of whether a whistleblower was unfairly fired.
Donna Busche was fired in February after raising questions about the safety of the unfinished Waste Treatment Plant on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
Bushe was a manager for URS Energy and Construction, Inc., which is a subcontractor of Bechtel National, Inc. at the Hanford site.
The inspector general’s report says URS and Bechtel would not provide several thousand emails and other documents necessary to determine if Busche was unfairly fired.
Hanford made plutonium for nuclear weapons and is now the nation’s most polluted nuclear site. The Waste Treatment Plant is intended to turn much of the radioactive waste into glass-like logs for burial.
