The Take Two for Safety team from Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, LLC, (FRNP) was recently named the Outstanding Safety Culture team by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). FRNP is the first-ever recipient of the award.

In 2021, FRNP united a team representing individuals from safety and occupational medicine, communications and United Steel Workers (USW) Local 550 Safety Representatives. The team’s first task was to develop and implement a strategic communication plan to teach workers to “take two” minutes to ensure they have the tools and knowledge needed to do their jobs safely.

As part of the campaign, the team produced a “Take Two for the Family” video highlighting coworkers sharing the reasons they take two for safety. Throughout the year, the team distributed promotional items, such as t-shirts, magnets and posters, to reinforce the Take Two principles and to remind workers for whom they work safe.

In addition, the team hosted brown bag lunches, providing an opportunity for employees to share safety concerns and lessons learned from previous experiences. They launched a nearly year-long promotion that invited employees to share positive observations of coworkers working safely. Online submittal forms were established to make it easy for workers to also share safety concerns and ideas with management.

The team’s success is apparent in the high participation rate and positive feedback received from FRNP’s Safety Culture Survey this year.

“This prestigious award recognizes our Take Two team for their continued efforts to achieve a standard of excellence and to promote safety at the Paducah site. Their hard work truly exemplifies the safety culture principles held by our managers and personnel,” FRNP Program Manager Myrna Redfield said.

DOE will formally recognize FRNP during the department’s 2022 Safety Culture Improvement Panel Annual Meeting in August. FRNP is the deactivation and remediation contractor for DOE’s Paducah site.