The Savannah River Site's management and operations contractor has hit another significant safety milestone.
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, or SRNS, recently achieved more than 10 million hours without a lost work day due to injury. The contractor reached the milestone the week of March 15.
This is the second longest streak of safe work hours achieved by the company since SRNS took over the site's contract in 2008, surpassed only by a 24.8 million man-hour milestone achieved in 2013.
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions officials wrote that employees take safety seriously, and that their commitment shows in their safety performance. Put into perspective, officials wrote that it would take one human 5,000 years to work 10 million safe work hours.
Alice Doswell, an SRNS safety and health official, said reaching the milestone takes a lot of attention to detail and focus on safe behaviors for employees to safely perform hazardous work.
"Most impressively, when the unlikely event of an injury does occur, our employees come back stronger than ever and look for opportunities to prevent recurrence," Doswell said.
"It is that resilience and commitment to safe performance that enables SRNS to have a world-class safety culture."
Officials added that a significant contributor to the achievement is attributed to SRNS' Project Management and Construction Services division.
The group also recently surpassed an organizational safety milestone of 3 million safe hours worked without a lost work day due to injury.
The organization supports all site facilities and conducts some of the most hazardous work at the site.
"In an industry known for physical hazards and worker injury, it is a noteworthy accomplishment that the SRNS (Project Management and Construction Services) organization has surpassed 3 million safe work hours without a lost work day injury," Doswell added.
Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the paper since June 2013. He is originally from Vidalia, Ga., and a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Follow him on Twitter @DerrekAsberry.