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A worker fell into a reactor pool at San Onofre nuclear power plant last week. (Photo: RT News)

Workplace accident: A worker at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station  fell into a reactor pool last week, Southern California Edison officials said Friday.

The incident occurred just a few days before the power plant was shut down due to a leak in one of the reactors.

•    A contract worker at the San Onofre nuclear power plant fell into a reactor pool full of water that circulates through the nuclear reactor core.

•    Co-workers pulled him to safety. He was decontaminated and tested for radiation. 

•    Officials said the worker was not exposed to a dangerous dose of radiation.

The worker, who is not a plant employee but works for a private contractor, was assigned to replace the vessel head in the nuclear power plant’s Unit 2 reactor pool, officials told the North County Times.

Southern California Edison spokesman Gil Alexander said the worker, whose name was not released, had leaned over to pick up a flashlight when he “momentarily lost his balance” and fell into the pool on January 27.

“He was wearing all of the appropriate safety equipment, including a life preserver vest,” Alexander said.

The water inside the reactor pool is 23-foot-deep. It circulates through the nuclear reactor core. Co-workers pulled the victim to safety, according to a CBS News report.

The highly radioactive uranium fuel that normally sits at the bottom of the pool had been removed earlier, but stray fuel particles could have been floating in the water, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) spokesman Victor Dricks said.

The victim was decontaminated and then tested to determine if he may have swallowed any of the radioactive particles. These initial tests showed no significant radiation exposure, Alexander said.

Alexander said the tests showed that the worker received 5 millirem of radiation as a result of the fall. That is 1 millirem more than the exposure from a chest X-ray, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Federal government safety rules for nuclear workers limit exposure to less than 5,000 millirems per year .

The worker who fell into the reactor pool was back on the job the same day, Alexander said. Edison officials continued to monitor him for several days but said there were no signs of a harmful dose of radiation.

One reactor at the San Onofre plant was shut down Tuesday night  after radioactive gas escaped from a pipe in a building located next to the reactor.  A second reactor was shut down for maintenance.

Nuclear regulation officials said Thursday that extensive wear had been found on relatively news tubes inside a unit at the San Onofre nuclear plant, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. Officials don’t yet know what it causing the so much wear on the tubes.

Environmental safety groups say problems with the aging plant point to the need to shift to clean-energy alternatives like energy efficiency and renewable power.

San Onofre Workplace Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented workplace accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

Cal/OSHA cited two labor contractors for violating heat illness prevention standards.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) announced Wednesday that it has cited two farm labor contractors for violating heat illness prevention standards in 2011. One of the violations resulted in a fatality.

•   After two workplace incidents of heat illness in July — one of them fatal — Cal/OSHA investigated two farm labor contractors. 

•   Both were cited for violating state heat illness prevention standards.

•   One case involved a 47-year-old man who collapsed in a cantaloupe field in 102-degree heat. He died.

•   The other case involved a 16-year-old boy who collapsed in 103-degree heat but later recovered. 

•   California was the first state in the country to adopt heat illness regulations to protect farm workers, in 2005.

The two companies cited by the workplace safety agency were AgPrime Corporation of Los Banos and C. Clunn Consulting of Holtville, according to a report in the Bakersfield Californian. Both incidents occurred in July.

Cal/OSHA cited C. Clunn Consulting for the death of 47-year-old Romero Vasquez, who was loading 40-pound boxes of cantaloupe at a farm in Blythe when he collapsed in 102-degree heat. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.

C. Clunn was fined $74,125. Cal/OSHA officials said the company violated state regulations by failing to provide employees or supervisors with training on how to identify and treat symptoms of heat illness, according to a CBS News report. Investigators said the company did not have proper emergency medical procedures in place.

“Heat illness is totally preventable and should not occur if proper procedures are followed.,” Cal/OSHA chief Ellen Widess said in a statement. “We take any heat-related incident seriously and enforce our standard to the fullest extent possible.”

California’s heat illness prevention standards were introduced in 2005 to protect the state’s 450,000 seasonal farm workers. The regulations were the first of their type in the nation.

AgPrime Corporation was cited and fined $61,425 over an incident in which a a 16-year-old boy became ill while picking bell peppers with his guardians in 105-degree heat. A supervisor was made aware that the boy was sick, but did not get medical help for him. The boy later recovered.

Cal/OSHA investigators found that AgPrime did not provide adequate water, shade, rest breaks, or first aid kits at the work site. Futhermore, they did not train new employees or supervisors to identify and treat symptoms of heat illness. There were no procedures in place to call for medical help.

The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement also fined AgPrime for violating child labor laws.

California Workplace Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented workplace accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

Cal/OSHA cited Baxter Healthcare for “deliberate and willful” failure to ensure worker safety.

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) cited Baxter Bioscience of Los Angeles for the death of one employee and serious injury to two others in January.

•   A bioscience company employee collapsed after going into a tank to clean it. A supervisor sent in two coworkers to rescue him, but they collapsed too.

•   The first man died. The other two were critically injured. One of them is still hospitalized after more than six months.

•   Cal/OSHA concluded that the company willfully and deliberately violates safety laws that put all three men in danger.

The fatal workplace accident occurred on January 21, according to a California Watchdog report.

Cal/OSHA investigators said 33-year-old technician Henry Astilla collapsed after entering a 7-by-7-foot tank that used nitrogen to separate blood protein from plasma. Air in the tank had been displaced by the nitrogen and there was not enough oxygen to survive.

Two of Astilla’s coworkers went into the tank to rescue him, but they also collapsed. Astilla died at the scene. One of the coworkers is still hospitalized, more than seven months after the accident.

Cal/OSHA discovered that supervisors had ordered the two coworkers to go into the tank to help Astilla, but did not test the atmosphere of the tank beforehand or providing proper equipment necessary for a safe rescue.

Read more about this workplace accident: Medical Worker Dies From Toxic Fumes

The workplace safety agency issueed 11 citations this week against the pharmaceutical research company and fined it $371,250. Four of the fines — totaling $280,000 — were for “deliberate and willful” failure to ensure worker safety.

Willful citations are issued when an employer is aware of a safety law and intentionally violates it anyway, or when an employer knows that a dangerous condition exists and makes no reasonable effort to eliminate the hazard.

“The hazards of working in confined spaces are well documented and this is a classic example of the kind of injury that occurs when employers fail to adequately protect their employees,” said Cal/OSHA chief Ellen Widess said Thursday. “When confined space operations are not properly planned, it is unfortunately common for other employees to be injured or killed while attempting impromptu rescue of the initial victim.”

The multinational pharmaceutical company, which operates the Los Angeles plant, makes drugs and other products for patients with bleeding disorders and immune deficiencies. Spokeswoman Elaine Salewske said the company was cooperating with authorities and would take corrective steps.

“This tragic accident was an isolated event,” Salewske said.

Cal/OSHA acting director Christine Baker, sharply criticized the company and said it deliberately put its employees in danger.

“We will not tolerate employers who intentionally sacrifice the safety of their workers,” Baker said.

Los Angeles Wrongful Death Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented families in wrongful death cases for more than 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.