Tuesday, Oct. 14, 1997
Updated at 1 p.m. today
Premiums for new health-care program announced
The University of California today released the premium information on the Lab's new health-care program.
As previously announced, the 1998 health-care program is introducing two new plans, a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plan and a Point-of-Service (POS) plan, in addition to the Core Medical plan. The HMO and POS plans will be administered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Mexico; Prudential will continue to administer the Core Medical plan.
Monthly employee premiums under the new HMO are $5.35 for individual coverage, $12.13 for two-party coverage and $16.49 for family coverage.
Under the POS plan, monthly employee premiums are $67.05 for individual coverage, $127.32 for two-party coverage and $210.90 for family coverage.
Members of the health-care plan who do not have the HMO option in their area of permanent residence are eligible for Worldwide Point-of-Service coverage at the following premiums: $17.36 for individual, $36.88 for two-party and $50 for family.
Those who elect the Core Medical plan do not have to pay monthly premiums, but there is a $3,000 per person annual deductible and no coverage for behavioral or substance-abuse care.
A memo outlining the basic elements of the health-care plans will be distributed this week to all eligible plan members. Members also will receive a checklist of things to do or consider before they enroll.
Enrollment packages, which will include the most current directory of participating health-care providers, will be distributed the last week of October. From Nov. 1 through 21, employees can enroll in the plan of their choice using the Open Enrollment Action Line and their telephones. The telephone number and instructions will be included in the enrollment package. Retirees can make their benefit elections by using the enrollment form included in their packages.
Compensation and Benefits (HR-1) is conducting a series of general sessions on Open Enrollment beginning Monday, Oct. 20. HR-1 also will hold special sessions for divisions and program offices on request. The following general sessions are scheduled:
Blue Cross/Blue Shield has set up a 24-hour telephone line to answer specific questions about the HMO and POS plans; that number is 1-800-711-3795. For questions about the Core Medical plan, call 1-800-632-0524. Questions on the health-care plans also can be sent to health@lanl.gov through electronic mail.
Six activities given go-ahead at CMR
Another activity at the Chemistry/Metallurgy Research Building has been given the go-ahead to become operational.
The Independent Review Team approved the work-safety package for the Source-term Test Program on Thursday. Including the Accelerator Production of Tritium Program and Vault Custodian Transfer, which were granted deliberate-operations status (activities that absolutely must be performed for various reasons), the number of activities up and running again now totals six.
Twelve additional work-safety packages have been completed and currently are being reviewed; of that number, eight have been approved by line management and are being verified by the review team.
The Radioactive Source Recovery Program and Magnetic Isotope Separation have been removed from deliberate-operations status. The owners of these activities currently are putting together work-safety packages. Removal of Hazardous Waste and the Detonator Surveillance Project currently are undergoing review for deliberate operations status.
Bob Velasco of Facility Operations/CMR (CST-26) and CMR Resumption Management Team member said since the beginning of the resumption process, the Independent Review Team has identified and resolved several issues that could have affected many CMR activities.
Such issues have included procedures related to fuming perchloric acids, engineering ventilation systems, package completeness, proper understanding of acid and solvent volume limits and duct wash-down systems.
"The team has implemented additional compensatory measures to deal with these issues, so we're constantly learning what needs to be accounted for in the work-safety packages," said Velasco.
The number of activities/work packages performed at CMR identified by the resumption team originally was 60. That number has since been reduced to 57, the result of consolidating the packages of four activities into two and the team's identifying a new activity. Velasco explained that the packages were consolidated because the activities were so closely related to each other in terms of procedures and practices.
Thermochemistry and Molten Salt Electrochemistry now make up one safety package, as do Material Characterization/Nonspecial Nuclear Materials/Radioactive and Material Characterization/Nonspecial Nuclear Materials/Nonradioactive. The newly identified activity is called Materials Control and Accountability 528.
--Ternel N. Martinez
Contaminated equipment improperly shipped offsite
Three pumps with residual levels of tritium contamination were improperly shipped from the Lab to an offsite company for servicing.
The pumps are part of the equipment used to remove air from the accelerator beam path at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. When the accelerator beam hits lingering water molecules in the pathway it converts the hydrogen in the water molecules into tritium, a radioactive isotope that emits a low-energy electron when it decays. The tritiated water, in turn, becomes absorbed by lubricating oil in the pumps. Most of the oil from the pumps was drained before they were shipped.
"We visited the offsite locations where these pumps were handled, took a number of smear samples and determined there was no spread of contamination to employees, to their tools or to the workplace itself," said Lee McAtee, deputy director of Los Alamos' Environment, Safety and Health Division. "The contamination associated with these pumps was low, but I was still relieved when the readings came back and I could state conclusively to these folks that their health had not been put at risk because of this violation of Lab procedures," McAtee said. "These pumps were shipped without appropriate controls so it was fortuitous that the level of radioactivity was so low."
Department of Energy regulations allow unrestricted release of materials with less than a certain level of contamination, but the Lab has a self-imposed goal of not generally shipping anything offsite with detectable radioactivity.
The three contaminated pumps were part of a shipment of seven sent for servicing. Four, including two of the contaminated ones, had been serviced and returned to the Laboratory before staff members realized they had been shipped without proper labelling.
The third pump, and the one with the highest level of contamination, was retrieved from the vendor before it had been serviced.
The highest level of contamination found was about six microCuries of tritium per liter of oil; the other two pumps had 0.12 and 0.075 microCuries of tritium per liter of oil, respectively. Each pump contains about two liters of oil when filled. Although the pumps had been drained before being sent off site, some residual oil remained in them. There is no significant health risk associated with handling machine oil with these levels of contamination, according to Lab health physicists. Existing Lab procedures spell out the steps to take when removing equipment from a controlled area, which is any Lab location that presents a potential radiological concern. The LANSCE location where the pumps came from is a controlled area.
"We need appropriate controls over all possible pathways by which radioactive contamination could move from a controlled area," McAtee said. "The four pathways are when you move equipment, when people move outside the area, when you remove waste from the area or when airborne contamination is released.
"We had done the first step, which was defining the controlled area, but our efforts broke down in evaluating and implementing appropriate controls," McAtee said.
LANSCE and ESH personnel are now evaluating this incident to take steps to prevent another similar occurrence.
"This is a wake-up call for LANSCE," said Roger Pynn, LANSCE deputy division director. "We are placing a high priority on making sure problems of this sort cannot recur."
-- John R. Gustafson
Employee puts safety first, stops work on roofing
A Laboratory-construction safety inspector initiated a stop-work order on roofing activities conducted by a subcontractor because of inadequate fall-protection measures. The onsite superintendent was removed from the job, and a different crew was requested for the roofing work. A safety monitor will be assigned by the subcontractor for the remainder of the project.
According to the occurrence report, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Regulations, 29 CFR 1926.501, "Duty to Have Fall Protection," requires that each employee engaged in roofing activities on low-slope roofs with unprotected sides and edges 6 feet or more above lower levels be protected from falling by guardrail systems, safety net systems, personal fall-arrest systems, or a combination of a warning line system and guardrail system, or a warning line system and safety monitoring system. Employees working on roofs 50 feet or less in width are permitted to use a safety monitoring system alone. The Lab building being worked on was less than 50 feet wide. Consequently, the subcontractor was allowed to use a safety-monitoring system during the roofing activities.
The safety inspector initiated the formal stop work order when it was noted that the designated monitor for the roofing activity was not complying with the monitoring system.
The Baldrige criteria and the Lab
As part of the Lab's observance of Quality Month, Brian Thompson of the Quality and Planning Program Office discusses the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria and what it means to the Lab in a Guest Editorial. He talks about why the Lab selected the Baldrige criteria as the framework for its efforts to improve operation, how the criteria helps the Lab evaluate itself and more. go to
'Reflections, Lessons Learned and Thanks"
Director Sig Hecker, who steps down as Lab director Nov. 3, will focus on "Reflections, Lessons Learned and Thanks" during a colloquium Monday at 8:10 a.m. in the Administration Building Auditorium. The unclassified talk is open to badgeholders only.
DOE sets higher penalties for safety infractions
The Department of Energy has announced a new penalty structure for safety violations in all areas of nuclear operations. Secretary of Energy Federico Peña says contractors who do not identify and correct serious safety violations under the new policy will, in most cases, receive a higher fine. Peña says the goal of the new structure is to encourage the best safety practices. More information is available in a DOE news release.
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