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Clinton Power Station workers in Clinton, Illinois, represented by Locals 51 and 1306, celebrate the plant’s designation
as an OSHA star, part of the agency’s voluntary protection program.

Illinois Nuclear Plant Wins Top OSHA Safety Award

June 2005 IBEW Journal

When a group of IBEW members at the Clinton Nuclear Power Station proposed applying to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration for recognition of the plant’s high safety standards, management was a little nervous.

The thought of inviting a team of inspectors to peer inside the workings of the nuclear reactor, drill workers and root through internal paperwork is enough to make any plant manager queasy. Besides, as a nuclear power station, the facility is already highly regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

But the persistence of Springfield, Illinois, Local 51 members Tom Dwyer and Bill Toohey eventually won over the managers and the rest of the 250 IBEW members working at the plant, represented by Local 51 and Decatur, Illinois, Local 1306.

"We do a lot of things above and beyond industry practice," said Dwyer, a nuclear repairman in the nuclear maintenance department. "We already do 99 percent of the things that OSHA is looking for. We are a totally safe plant."

After a comprehensive inspections process, OSHA awarded the workers at the Exelon-owned Clinton Power Station on February 4 with a star, the highest safety rating from OSHA. Clinton is now in the elite club of six nuclear power plants out of 103 in the United States to earn the designation. A voluntary protection program, the star rating is awarded to companies exhibiting successful safety and health management systems, including injury and illness rates at or below the national average and ability to control workplace hazards. OSHA reviews the designation every three years.

Key to the extraordinary safety record of the plant is the attitude of all of the plant’s workers that safety is everyone’s responsibility, said plant Safety Director George Hall. "People are always looking over each-other’s shoulders," he said. "We want to be safe. We put all these things into place to make sure that happens. It institutionalizes continuous safety."

Hall said once when a vice president was walking along a hallway in the plant without holding a handrail, a Local 51 member stopped him and said, "‘Look, I care about you, please hold the handrail.’ That’s the kind of culture you want to have," he said.

Hall said for every activity planned at the plant, workers put together a manual—often a thick binder—covering the procedures, personnel, and materials they anticipate using.

Local 1306 Business Manager Karlene Knisley said the safety first attitude is pervasive. "Exelon allows their workers the time to be safe," she said. "Our members are not rushed into jobs, they look at everything from a safety point of view."

The designation is win-win-win, for the members, the company, and the community. It sets a high standard that encourages constant improvement, Hall said. Earning the top award from OSHA could mean falling insurance rates. The public knows the nuclear plant down the street is safe, too.

"We all worked together as one big team," Knisley said. "We had a mission and a goal. We worked together and we did it."

Clinton is a single-unit nuclear plant that went online in 1989, making it one of the youngest nuclear plants in the country. Exelon is the largest nuclear operator in the United States and the third largest in the world. The Clinton plant is the only American facility owned by Exelon to achieve the rating, Hall said.