Safety and Quality at NSCL
From the Director
Safety is the responsibility of each employee, user, contractor and visitor at NSCL. We are individually and collectively the owners of the NSCL Safety Program. We each have the right to expect that at the end of our day, we will be returning home without having suffered a work-related injury or illness. It is our responsibility to ensure this security for our coworkers and ourselves.
MSU and NSCL employ a staff of safety professionals to help ensure a workplace free of recognized hazards, but in the final analysis, they are not the ones that make the laboratory a safe place to work and conduct experiments. Safety requires a conscious effort from each of us. Always remember, effective safety requires your active participation. Personnel must plan and perform their work in a safe manner, following standard procedures and seeking advice from the experts if there is any doubt regarding how to safely proceed. Supervisors, together with appropriate staff, must review work plans and project execution to assure that only qualified personnel are assigned and safety procedures are consistently incorporated into every task and project. As appropriate, personnel are expected to provide pre-task input and post-task feedback on how to perform work more safely and/or more effectively. I along with the rest of the NSCL management insist that safety be the top priority.
It is vital to the future of NSCL and MSU that users complete their experiments safely and without incident. Therefore, users must be trained in NSCL safety policies and procedures, and their experimental plans must be reviewed by the appropriate MSU and NSCL safety personnel to assure compliance. If ever in doubt, it is essential that NSCL safety experts be consulted. Employees need to be alert to advise and assist users to safely conduct their experiments and to provide feedback to improve efficiency and safety for the next iteration. Again, only active participation can produce a safe work environment.
Konrad Gelbke
NSCL Director
Environment, Safety and Health Policy
National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and Facility for Rare Isotope Beams Environment, Safety and Health (ES&H) Policy (as of July 15, 2009)
This document is a statement of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory’s (NSCL) and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beam’s (FRIB) ES&H Policy. NSCL is a world class national user facility in rare isotope research and FRIB is being designed and established to be a world-leading national user facility. Both strive for excellence in protecting people, property and the environment. All NSCL and FRIB personnel, contractors, visitors, users and guests are responsible for adhering to the following principles:
- Environment: We protect the environment, conserve resources and strive to prevent pollution.
- Safety: We maintain a safe workplace; we plan and perform our work safely. We work within predetermined controls designed to prevent injuries and incidents. We take responsibility for the safety of ourselves, coworkers, visitors and guests.
- Security: We protect people, property, information and the environment.
- Health: We protect human health within our boundaries and in the surrounding community.
- Compliance: We have achieved and continue to maintain compliance with all applicable ES&H requirements.
- Community: We maintain open, proactive, and constructive relationships with our employees, users, campus communities, neighbors, regulators, funding agencies, and other stakeholders.
- Continual Improvement: We work to continually improve ES&H management and performance through a framework of setting and reviewing ES&H objectives and targets.
In addition to annual review of NSCL’s and FRIB’s progress on ES&H goals and adherence to this policy, I invite all interested parties to provide me with input on our performance relative to this policy, and the policy itself.
C. K. Gelbke, Director
Addendum: NSCL's EMS was registered as compliant with the ISO 14001 standard on August 9, 2009.
NSCL Quality Policy (as of May 13, 2008)
Through a strategy of continuous improvement and teamwork, NSCL is dedicated to delivering world-class beams of rare isotopes to enable our users to achieve their scientific objectives.
The foundation for achieving our commitment is based on:
- understanding and meeting the requirements of our users,
- continuously improving processes that produce and deliver
rare isotope beams, - effectively utilizing the creative talents of our employees,
and - meeting statutory, regulatory, and other requirements.
NSCL's quality management system was registered as compliant with the ISO 9001 standard on May 27, 2008.
