A worker employed by Envirocon suffered breaks of both tibia and fibula in his left leg last week when a roll of plastic sheeting fell on him while he was working at the Atlas uranium mill tailings cleanup site north of Moab, according to Department of Energy spokesperson Wendee Ryan. The incident, which occurred at about 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29, is the first injury-causing accident in six years at the site, according to Ryan.

The employee, Joshua Davis, 31, was immediately taken to Allen Memorial Hospital by ambulance. He underwent surgery to install screws and a plate to help the leg heal and will return to restricted duty work upon his release by the attending physician, possibly next week, Ryan said.

The accident occurred in the contaminated area, the “dirty side,” of the site where Envirocon, a subcontractor for EnergySolutions, operates.

Envirocon excavates the tailings, dries excess water from them, loads them into the 40-ton containers, and then hauls the containers to a lidding structure where the containers are sealed for transportation to a disposal site near Crescent Junction. The containers are then transferred to trucks operated by EnergySolutions to be hauled to the rail siding, where they are transferred to rail cars, Ryan said.

The employee was not negligent and there was no need to shut down operations, according to Ryan. But the practice of lining the shipping containers with plastic has been suspended, Ryan said.

“The 600-pound roll came out of the bracket,” Ryan said. An investigation is now underway to determine the cause. Coincidentally, investigators from EnergySolutions corporate headquarters are in Utah helping investigate the cause of a truck accident that occurred two weeks ago, Ryan said.

Last week’s accident was immediately reported to Lee Shenton, the newly hired Grand County liaison to the project, a position funded by a grant from DOE. Following county protocol Shenton then notified the Grand County Engineer, the chairman of the Grand County Council, and the council administrator, who sent an email to all council members, Shenton said.

The plastic sheeting is used to line the 40-ton shipping containers to ensure that all tailings are released when the containers are dumped into the permanent storage cell. The goal is avoid the unnecessary cost of bringing containers back to the cleanup site with toxic material left inside them.

Hauling the tailings both directions adds to the cost of shipping them on the railroad, officials said, and tailings left in the containers reduces the amount that can be loaded into them. That increases the time needed to get all the tailings transported, Shenton said.

Immediately following the Oct. 29 accident, EnergySolutions ordered Envirocon to cease the use of plastic to line the containers. Workers are now lining the containers by spraying them on the inside with Soluble D, a water-based oil, Ryan said.

Permanent liners are being installed in new shipping containers that will be delivered to the site soon, Ryan said.

In the next several days following the truck accident on Oct. 14, several safety measures were implemented, including installing delineators/reflectors along the haul roads, installing permanent lighting on the hillside, and widening the temporary haul road, Ryan said. Other safety actions that could not be implemented immediately were checked to ensure a safe interim measure was in place, according to Ryan.

Additional actions forthcoming include designating a Safety Action Leader to act as a “rover” to listen to employee concerns and communicate them to management. Daily “walk downs” will be conducted by representatives from management and supervision, the technical assistance contractor, health and safety, and others during each work shift, Ryan said.

An independent safety assessment will be conducted by the technical assistance contractor, she said.