UCOR President and Project Manager Ken Rueter is pictured above at the K-25 History Center on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
URS|CH2M Oak Ridge LLC (UCOR) has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy for outstanding safety performance in its role as lead cleanup contractor for the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge, a press release said.
UCOR received the DOE Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star of Excellence at the VPP Participants Association national conference in Nashville. This is the second consecutive year UCOR has won the award, the press release said.
The Star of Excellence recognizes UCOR’s outstanding level of performance in meeting established safety and health goals, actively conducting outreach to others, and in achieving an injury and illness rate significantly below the average of similar businesses and operations, the release said.
“The work we perform every day is some of the most hazardous and challenging in the nation,” said Ken Rueter, UCOR president and chief executive officer. “As our work continues expanding to Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex, we have continued our high level of safety performance despite having to tackle new challenges.”
In the press release, Rueter said UCOR’s success is built on a culture of excellence.
“It is that culture that drives our performance and our commitment to safety,” Rueter said. “Our expectation is that each employee goes home in the same condition in which he or she came to work. Our goal is zero injuries.”
In 2015, UCOR was awarded Star status in the DOE Voluntary Protection Program, recognizing the company as one of the safest industrial operators in the nation. VPP Star status recognizes work sites that have achieved and are maintaining excellence in worker safety and health protection that goes well beyond basic requirements set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the DOE, the press release said. It reflects cooperation among management, labor, and government conducted in a way that can serve as a role model for others.
UCOR is an AECOM-led partnership of Jacobs and a small business partner, RSI-EnTech. The company is responsible for cleaning up the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge, former home of the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant. UCOR is also performing cleanup work at excess contaminated facilities at ORNL and Y-12.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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