EM’s liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site (SRS) has completed more than 365 days without a work-related injury that required an employee to miss a day on the job.

Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), which assumed the SRS liquid waste contract in February 2022, observed the safety milestone on April 4. The achievement was reached amid a number of accomplishments executed safely and without resulting in a missed day of work, including:

• Implementation of an improved chemical process at the Defense Waste Processing Facility;
• Processing 2.5 million gallons of liquid waste at the Salt Waste Processing Facility;
• Constructing multiple mega-volume Saltstone Disposal Units concurrently; and
• Operationally closing the first tank farm ancillary structures.

Companies of similar size to SRMC incur between 24 and 39 injuries a year resulting in employees being unable to return to work the following day, according to industry averages.

Dave Olson, SRMC president and program manager, said the milestone was reached due to the company’s effective safety culture. Safety is one of the company’s four core values.

“Each day, we challenge ourselves to perform each task safely,” Olson said. “We want our employees to return home in the same condition that they arrived to work.”

Jim Folk, the DOE-Savannah River assistant manager for waste disposition, said all workers at the site adhere to established safety standards.

“Safety is more than an expectation at Savannah River Site; it’s a requirement,” Folk said. “We are entrusted with important missions that we must execute while protecting workers, the public and the environment.”

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