"When it comes to safety, I know there are no small details."
Michelle
Chemical Safety Analyst
"I always keep things on the right track."
Clifton
Transportation and Waste Management Engineer
"Testing the water is my profession — and my passion."
Greg
Environmental Scientist
"After 32 years here, I can say there's no place like home."
Hitomi
Executive Administrative Assistant
"You can count on me to keep things safe and sound."
Kojac
Assistant Chief, Fire Brigade
and Training Specialist
NFS employees have a proud history of serving our nation. In 2010, over 100 NFS employees had served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine forces.
"It's not just a job. It's my personal mission."
Allison
Production Operator
"Protecting NFS and the community is serious business. I'm up to the challenge."
Andy
NFS Tactical Response Force
"To me, there's no such thing as good enough."
Rachel
Research & Development Chemist
It's no wonder they call Unicoi County "Valley Beautiful."
NFS employees are proud of their role in fueling freedom through the US Navy.
NFS employees are committed to protecting the Nolichucky River.
NFS is the sole provider of fuel for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.
NFS maintains a multi-layered, robust security and cyber-security posture to ensure the protection of the facility and the surrounding area.

FAQ's

Question: NFS owns a firing range away from the NFS plant in Erwin. Is there asbestos contamination there?

Answer: NFS owns property in Unicoi County, which the company uses as a training facility for security guards. NFS is currently in the process of upgrading the facility. These upgrades involved tearing down an old house, which contained asbestos. NFS used the proper environmental and safety controls while performing this project, to ensure no employees or members of the public were exposed to any asbestos.

Question: What is SCuBA and the SCuBA Report?

Answer: As part of a concerted effort by NFS to lead the nuclear fuel cycle companies in safety culture, NFS' Board of Directors formed an independent team of highly experienced nuclear and chemical industry experts to assess and advise NFS management. This team was called the Safety Culture Board of Advisors, or SCuBA Team. This team conducted a series of assessments, including comprehensive employee surveys and interviews, which they used to both determine progress in achieving safety culture improvements and to provide strategic advice to NFS management on areas needing attention. NFS received the final SCuBA report in June of 2010. Starting in late 2009, NFS began a fundamental change in conduct of operations. The SCuBA report is being actively used to assist NFS in refining our strategy as we move forward. Following a careful review of the report, the NFS team immediately looked at the appropriate method to implement these changes, and discovered that many of SCUBA initiatives were already well underway. The SCUBA report did outline some additional areas for improvement.

The NFS has begun the necessary actions and implementations to address the areas for improvement. Additionally, the NFS team has instituted reviews of all operations, to ensure that the plant is only operating under the most stringent safety guidelines. NFS takes all safety concerns very seriously, and appreciates the comments of both NRC and SCUBA team experts.

Question: What is the Employee Concerns Program?

Answer: The Employee Concerns Program (ECP) is a way for employees and contract workers to report safety or compliance concerns without going through their supervisor or manager. NFS is committed to the protection of personnel and public health and safety and to a strong safety and compliance culture. A key component of this culture is a safety and compliance conscious work environment (SCCWE). This is an environment where individuals feel free to raise safety concerns without fear of harassment, intimidation, retaliation or discrimination (HIRD).

Concerns can be submitted anonymously, and a prompt, thorough investigation of the concern will be conducted. Corrective actions will be taken as necessary. The Employee Concerns Program is an important alternative reporting avenue to assure that no concern goes unreported and therefore unaddressed. In a nuclear work environment, all employees, contractors and visitors to our site must feel free to express concerns for any unsafe practices or conditions without fear of reprisal. In order to further this open work environment, we established the Employee Concerns Program.

Questions: What kind of chemicals are used at NFS?

Answer: NFS uses a variety of chemicals in the facility for processing uranium and for other uses. Hydrogen, a variety of acids are some of the most notable. As with all of the chemicals used at NFS, very specific guidelines and regulations are followed to assure worker and environmental safety. We use diverse and independent controls to ensure safe handling of these materials.

Questions: What is Safety Culture?

At NFS, we define a safety culture as the core values and behaviors resulting from a collective commitment by each of us to emphasize safety over competing priorities to ensure protection of people and the environment. NFS is "Charting a New Course" with our safety culture. We have an industry safety culture expert on site, developing a plan to address past issues and to ensure long term, safe and reliable operations.

Our New Course is built on the foundation of our Core Values. We combine these with our workplace priorities: Safety, Quality, Schedule, Cost – (always in that order!), and measure our results with industry-standard metrics. These metrics look at the results of our work in the following areas:

  1. Leadership Values
  2. Problem Identification & Resolution
  3. Personal Accountability
  4. Work Processes
  5. Continuous Learning
  6. Environment for Raising Concerns
  7. Effective Safety Communication
  8. Respectful Work Environment

The NFS safety culture plan – "Charting a New Course" - is a living plan, and as such is able to adjust as necessary to address the results of our metrics. Our goal is to achieve excellence in safety culture as one team, so that NFS continues as a safe and reliable provider of innovative nuclear products and services.