Steelworkers union says DOE would be courting disaster in allowing DuPont
involvement in operation and clean-up of nuclear weapons plant in South Carolina.
October 27, 2005. Letter from Chair, USW Atomic Workers' Council
to Secretary of US DOE.
 
 

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http://www.steelworkers-usw.org/uswa/program/content/2514.php

October 27, 2005

Steelworkers Union Says DOE Would be Courting Disaster in Allowing DuPont Involvement in
Operation and Clean-Up of Nuclear Weapons Plant in South Carolina

           
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Steelworkers (USW)
today sent the following letter to Samuel Bodman, U.S. Secretary of Energy,
concerning a recent press release by DuPont Company that it will partner with
Fluor Corporation to compete with other companies for contracts worth $7.5
billion in managing and cleaning up the Savannah River nuclear weapons site
near Aiken, South Carolina:

October 27, 2005

Samuel W. Bodman
Secretary of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585

Dear Secretary Bodman:

We recently learned that DuPont Company, in a strategic alliance with
Fluor Corporation, will be bidding on contracts valued at $7.5 billion at the
Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The USW is in a unique position to
judge DuPont's prospective role in managing and cleaning up the Department of
Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site. We currently represent approximately
5,000 workers at eight DOE facilities along with 1,800 DuPont employees at six
of the company's plants. We know first-hand what it takes to operate a safe
nuclear facility, and have intimate knowledge of how DuPont treats its workers
and the communities where its plants are located.

DuPont has an abysmal record in the area of worker and community safety,
and is one of the major polluters in the U.S. Hiring DuPont to manage and
clean up the Savannah River Site is tantamount to hiring a wolf to guard a hen
house.

DOE surely remembers that DuPont was literally forced to abandon its 35-
year operation of the Savannah River Site in 1989, after receiving heavy
criticism from DOE for its operational and safety record that included
accidents which could have resulted in cataclysmic accidents. Based on this
experience alone, we believe DOE would be courting disaster in allowing DuPont
to be become involved in the operation of the Savannah River Site. DuPont's
management and so-called clean-up of the site could put many lives at risk.

Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency launched an investigation to
determine if DuPont withheld important information concerning the health and
environmental effects of C8, a potentially harmful chemical that has
contaminated community water supplies and entered the blood of most Americans.
The Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice has issued
a subpoena to DuPont about C8, as part of a federal grand jury investigation.
DuPont recently settled a multi-million dollar lawsuit in West Virginia after
C8 leaked into the local water supply, and medical monitoring is currently
being conducted on thousands of residents.

It is notable that Fluor, DuPont's prospective partner in this endeavor,
is the main contractor for DuPont at the company's Fayetteville, North
Carolina site where C8 is produced. The C8 plant began operating in late 2002
with DuPont's assurances that C8 would not leak into the air or water.
However, three months later C8 was discovered in groundwater and discharges to
a nearby river. The USW's own investigation revealed that information about

the contamination was not disclosed to state officials for almost six months.

I am enclosing a recent USW report, Not Walking the Talk: DuPont's Untold
Safety Failures
, that documents DuPont's poor record of safety performance and
environmental compliance. The report also shows how the company covers up
this deplorable record through carefully engineered public relations efforts.

DuPont's spin doctors will be hard at work to fool the public and perhaps
the government into believing that the company can safely operate the Savannah
River Site.

The USW intends to carefully monitor the awarding of contracts at the
Savannah River Site, and will continue to educate the public about DuPont's
deplorable and dangerous record on worker and community safety. DOE should
not put workers and the public at risk by allowing DuPont to perform work at
the Savannah River Site.

Sincerely,

James K. Phillips, Jr.
Chair, USW Atomic Workers' Council

c: Leo Gerard, USW International President
Ken Test, Chair of USW DuPont Council

 
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