WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senior DOE, labor, and contractor leaders participated in the 48th semiannual steering committee meeting for the Hanford Site ’s Volpentest Hazardous Materials Management and Emergency Response (HAMMER) Federal Training Center here last week.
Members of the committee, a consortium of representatives from federal, Tribal and state governments, labor, local leadership, academia, and industry, discussed the importance of robust and quality worker training at Hanford and across the DOE complex.
“The partnership between the Tri-City community, embodied by the unions and HAMMER with the Department and our ongoing mission, is the strongest of any place across the complex," said Paul Dabbar, DOE Under Secretary for Science, expressing his appreciation for HAMMER’s unique peer-to-peer training model. He acknowledged HAMMER for setting a standard for training and safety that has been applicable across the EM complex.
Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, pledged that his organization would continue to work with DOE to help HAMMER carry out its mission.
Managed by Hanford site services contractor Mission Support Alliance, the center provides worker safety and health and emergency response training for the EM cleanup mission.
As cleanup progresses at Hanford, work to address aging facilities and infrastructure is becoming more complex and challenging, making HAMMER’s training and expertise critical to ensure worker safety, according to EM Richland Operations Office Manager Doug Shoop. The need to continue providing high-quality training at HAMMER and maintain and expand the facility was also discussed.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
