May 09 Issue - Employee Monthly Magazine
Chief electrical safety officer raises the bar
Setting new standards
Lloyd Gordon shows Laboratory employees various electrical devices and cables that could pose electrical
safety hazards. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez
May is National Electrical Safety Month. The Laboratory’s Chief Electrical Safety Officer, Lloyd Gordon, asks employees to take electrical safety to their homes, offices, and workplaces.
“Share electrical safety with family, friends, and colleagues,” he said. “Electricity is a fundamental
part of today’s modern world, and sometimes it’s easy to forget just how dangerous
it can be.” The National Safety Council estimates that 600 people die every year of electrical causes, making electrocutions the fourth-highest cause of industrial fatalities behind traffic, violence, and construction.
Electricity also can cause painful injuries: roughly 3,600 disabling electrical contact injuries occur every year in the United States, along with another 4,000 nondisabling injuries. Most of these accidents involve low voltage (600 volts or less).
The Lab has become a much safer place to work since Gordon joined the then Environment, Safety, and Health Division in 1998. The past four to five years have seen an 80 percent improvement in electrical safety at the Laboratory, he said, adding, “We now lead the country in research and development of electrical safety.”
Gordon has set new standards for electrical safety by providing leadership and technical guidance to nearly 150 group and division electrical-safety officers and by developing and delivering training to thousands of Lab workers. In addition, he helped develop the Electrical Severity Measurement Tool. According to the Department of Energy, this tool helps determine the severity of an electrical energy event based on a series of factors, such as electrical hazard, environment, shock proximity, arc flash proximity, thermal proximity,
and any resulting injury to personnel. It is now used across the complex to categorize and report electrical incidents.
Since coming to Los Alamos in 1998, Lloyd Gordon has developed and delivered electrical safety training to thousands of Laboratory employees. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez
Gordon’s achievements recently were recognized with the 2008 National Nuclear Security Administration Management & Operating Contractor Safety Professional of the Year award. The NNSA award recognizes distinguished service and outstanding achievements and contributions that are clearly and demonstrably greater than normally would be expected in performing assigned duties. This is the fourth year that NNSA has recognized one of its federal safety professionals and the first year that it has recognized an M&O contractor safety professional.
Gordon said he’s honored by the recognition. “I’m pleased that a researcher can make such an impact and serve the complex in safety,” said Gordon, who previously won a Laboratory 2006 Distinguished Performance Award. “My goal at the Laboratory over my 10 years in electrical safety for research and development has been to change the culture of safety among my colleagues, set an example for how safety can be efficiently integrated into the research field, and provide resources for all researchers in electrical safety.”
Gordon first came to Los Alamos as a consultant and trainer following a serious electrical accident at the Lab in 1996, he said. After two years, his consulting work turned into a full-time position.
Among his many projects was leading the development of complex-wide electrical safety tools. Fortunately, Gordon, who holds a doctorate in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University, Lubbock, had extensive prior experience working with research institutions and national laboratories.
“As an experimental researcher with a background in pulsed-power engineering and plasma physics, I saw an urgent need for improvement in electrical safety in government and university research laboratories,” he explained. “From 1987 to the early 1990s, I developed innovative electrical-safety training for researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and Sandia National Laboratories.”
Gordon presided over the Electrical Safety Subgroup of the the 30-member Energy Facility Contractors Group in 2008 and has chaired or cochaired EFCOG/DOE Electrical Safety workshops for the past five years. He also cochairs the ISA Standards Committee for High Power R&D Electrical Safety Standards and is the technical editor of the R&D sections of the DOE Electrical Safety Handbook.
For more information on electrical safety in May, watch for safety notes in Links and visit the Lab’s Electrical Safety Committee Web site (http://int.lanl.gov/safety/esc/) and the Center for Excellence
--Tatjana K. Rosev
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