a12 eZ re the washington post.monday, february 24 , 2020
companies
KPMG of the District
appointed Andrew Lewis
partner-in-charge of the audit
practice’s federal business unit.
LMI of Ty sons appointed Pat
Sharon director of business
development.
Lockheed Martin of Bethesda
appointed Greg Karol senior
vice president of human
resources.
associations
a nd nonprofits
American Society for
Radiation Oncology of
Arlington appointed Timothy
Hsiao director of scientific
affairs.
Community Foundation of
Howard County appointed Dan
Flynn director.
International Code
Council of the District
appointed Joan O’Neil chief
knowledge officer.law and lobbying
BakerHostetler of the
District appointed Ann O’Brien
partner.
Blank Rome of the District
appointed Simon Bord associate
in the firm’s corporate, M&A and
securities group and Dean
Nordlinger partner.
King & Spalding of the
District appointed Rick Vacura
and Steve Cave partners in the
firm’s special matters and
government investigations team.
Ogletree Deakins of the
District appointed Jaclyn
Otfinoski associate.
Quarles & Brady of theDistrict appointed Sarah Belger
and Hans Riede partners and
Christian Yingling associate.
Rothwell, Figg, Ernst &
Manbeck of the District
appointed Christopher Ott
partner.
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter &
Hampton of the District
appointed Michael Koltonyuk
and Bill Rappolt partners.
Steptoe & Johnson of the
District appointed Elinor
Ramey partner in the firm’s tax
group.
Venable of the District
appointed Michael Pickett and
Thomas Klanderman partners.send information about promotions,
appointments and personnel moves
in the Washington region to
[email protected].gy Department has worked with
teams of contractors on the mon-
umental task of dealing with
radioactive waste that accumu-
lated over several decades.
The massive scale and longevi-
ty of the weapons production
activities at Hanford mean clean-
up efforts are likely to continue
for most of the next century.
The project has been fraught
with waste, with milestones con-
tinually pushed back as contrac-
tors experienced difficulties.
Earlier reports found the de-
partment spent more than
$19 billion over 25 years on
“treatment and disposition of
56 million gallons of hazardous
waste” without actually treating
any hazardous waste. The project
originally was scheduled to be
completed in 2011 at a cost of
$4.3 billion.
Along with the cost overruns,
the haphazard way in whichthe cave-in, a decision the office
said was made at the request of
the contractor.
“A ccording to a written expla-
nation provided to us by [the
contractor’s] management, while
the tunnel collapse was due to
structural degradation, [the con-
tractor’s] first priority was stabi-
lizing the tunnel to mitigate the
potential for further collapse, and
a programmatic root cause analy-
sis to determine the cause was
not warranted,” the office wrote
in its report.
Instead, the agency carried out
an “apparent cause analysis,”
which determined the tunnel
probably collapsed because the
timber supporting it had de-
cayed.
Other parts of the Hanford site,
including some used to store
nuclear waste, have gone without
any safety inspections, the office
wrote.
Some of those areas, including
processing facilities known as
“canyons” where plutonium was
extracted from uranium fuelrods, haven’t been entered or
inspected in more than 50 years,
the office wrote.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
scolded the Energy Department
for its handling of the nuclear
waste cleanup effort in a letter to
Energy Secretary Dan Brouil-
lette. The letter notes the depart-
ment has accepted all of the
office’s recommendations but
says those changes are not suffi-
cient to protect workers and area
residents.
Wyden blamed the 2017 tunnel
collapse on the Energy Depart-
ment’s f ailure to conduct compre-
hensive inspections.
The tunnel collapse “seems
largely due to a failure of [the
Energy Department] and its con-
tractors to independently verify
the tunnel’s physical condition —
a state of affairs replicated over
many years across the site’s facili-
ties,” Wyden wrote.
[email protected] More at washingtonpost.com/
businessBY AARON GREGGCompanies responsible for
cleaning up a decommissioned
plutonium plant in rural Wash-
ington state failed to conduct
comprehensive safety checks at
facilities containing nuclear
waste, even after a 2017 tunnel
collapse put surrounding com-
munities on lockdown, govern-
ment auditors reported last week.
The report about the Hanford
nuclear waste site raises new
concerns about environmental
and safety risks posed by one of
the United States’ worst toxic
waste sites.
The Government Accountabil-
ity Office found the Energy De-
partment waived a “root cause
analysis” of the tunnel collapse
because it was asked to do so by
the contractor handling inspec-
tions, a subsidiary of Dallas-
based Jacobs Engineering. The
department did conduct a sepa-
rate review to determine weak-
nesses and risks related to con-
taminated facilities, but that eval-
uation “was based largely on old
data” and “did not include any
physical or non-physical inspec-
tion” t o flag facilities for cleanup,
the office reported.
Sitting in a rural area of south-
western Washington, the Han-
ford site was once the U.S. mili-
tary’s primary source of enriched
plutonium used in nuclear war-
heads, including one of the weap-
ons dropped on Japan at the end
of World War II. Hanford’s work-
force once numbered more than
50,000 people. Plutonium pro-
duction ended in 1987.
Parts of the site have not been
entered or inspected in more
than 50 years, the GAO reported,
suggesting t here could be addi-
tional safety risks of which the
Energy Department is not aware.
The inspections that were carried
out found structural problems
severe enough t hey “could lead to
the potential release of hazard-
ous or nuclear materials” at five
of 18 facilities there, the office
reported.
Energy Department spokes-
man Geoff Ty ree referred report-
ers to statements provided in the
office’s report. Jacobs Engineer-
ing did not respond to a request
for comment.
David Trimble, director of the
GAO’s natural resources and en-
vironment team, said the Energy
Department needs a better ap-
proach to handling safety inspec-
tions at Hanford.
“The cleanup of the weapons
complex is a huge undertaking
with many facilities not expected
to be cleaned up for many de-
cades,” Trimble said in an email
Friday. “Given the scope and na-
ture of this contamination, it is
critical for DOE to have an effec-
tive program to identify and miti-
gate any risks before they threat-
en workers, nearby communities
or the environment.”
Since the late 1980s, the Ener-GAO report notes
failures related to
Hanford cleanup
Energy Dept. under fire
over risks to people, land
from nuclear waste sitecapital business
appointmentsCompany Insider Title Date Action Shares Price Now holds
CACI International J. William Koegel General counsel Feb. 12 Sold 1,000 272.21 15,
Carlyle Group Curtis L. Buser Chief financial officer Feb. 10 Sold 36,773 33.07 910,
Corporate Office Properties Trust Steven D. Kesler Director Feb. 14 Sold 1,000 30 38,
Federal Realty Investment Trust Daniel Guglielmone Chief financial officer Feb. 13, Feb. 14 Sold 1,200 125.15 to 125.17 29,
Fortive Christopher M. Mulhall Officer Feb. 13 Sold 7,639 78.46 10,
General Dynamics Gary L. Whited Officer Feb. 11 Sold 16,465 186.59 48,
Gladstone Commercial Paul W. Adelgren Director Feb. 18 Bought 500 21.17 11,
Michael J. Sodo Chief financial officer Feb. 20 Bought 1,000 21.18 6,
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Jonathan W. Witter Officer Feb. 13 Sold 35,325 113.32 104,
Liquidity Services John Daunt Officer Feb. 19 Bought 5,000 4.62 54,
Edward J. Kolodzieski Director Feb. 18 Bought 5,000 4.52 58,
Lockheed Martin Kenneth R. Possenriede Chief financial officer Feb. 12 Sold 1,000 436.54 2,
Northrop Grumman Sheila C. Cheston General counsel Feb. 18 Sold 9,320 367.26 32,
Michael A. Hardesty Officer Feb. 14 to Feb. 19 Sold 1,802 367.26 to 373.22 4,
Lesley A. Kalan Officer Feb. 19 Sold 1,343 373.22 11,
Janis G. Pamiljans Officer Feb. 18 Sold 5,674 367.26 14,
Mary D. Petryszyn Officer Feb. 18 Sold 1,200 370.95 7,
NVR
David A. Preiser Director Feb. 14 to Feb. 18 Sold 2,600 4,005.05 to 4,006.11 239
William Grady Rosier Director Feb. 14 Sold 536 3,995 2,
Paul C. Saville Chief executive Feb. 18, Feb. 19 Sold 10,000 3,976.02 to 3,992.66 120,
Walker & Dunlop Howard W. Smith III President Feb. 11 Sold 32,000 78.23 442,
Thomson Financialtr ading as reported by companies’ directors, presidents, chief financial officers, general counsel, chief executives,
chairmen and other officers, or by beneficial owners of more than 10 percent of a company’s stock.transactionsnicholas K. Geranios/associated Press
The Hanford site in Washington state was once the U.S. military’s primary source of enriched plutonium used in nuclear warheads, and
tens of thousands of people worked there. Site cleanup originally was scheduled to be completed in 2011 at a cost of $4.3 billion.some waste was stored has made
cleanup a hazardous task for the
thousands of workers.
Industrial equipment used to
process plutonium was stowed
away in underground tunnelsheld up by wooden timbers. Al-
though studies conducted in 1978
and 1991 found the tunnels struc-
turally sound, the agency failed to
conduct a recommended follow-
up study that might have recog-
nized structural problems with
the tunnels, the GAO included in
its report.
After a partial collapse of one
of the tunnels in 2017, the Energy
Department declined to perform
a root-cause analysis that might
have shed light on what causedCleanup is likely
to c ontinue for most
of t he next century.
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