WithU.S.President From Indonesia or Kenya,Israeli Jews Running The NSA,Homeland Security and Finance and 'Securities' - Moslem Indian Malaysians Handle Our Nuke Weapons Waste So We Can Chill
ABQJOURNAL BIZ: One-on-One with Farok Sharif
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27/12/2010 - Farok Sharif was number eight. ... Arkansas before transferring to New Mexico State University upon meeting his wife, who was from Carlsbad.http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3342353.shtml#.UzJl5s4smoM
3 WIPP workers contaminated by radiation
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Updated: 02/27/2014 6:32 PM |
Created: 02/27/2014 9:29 AM
By: Lauren Hansard, KOB Eyewitness News 4
More workers at the nuclear waste plant near Carlsbad will be tested for radiation.By: Lauren Hansard, KOB Eyewitness News 4
This comes after more than a dozen workers were exposed.
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant officials held a news conference Thursday where they confirmed 13 employees tested positive for radiation.
Officials say those employees are being taken care of.
“I am responsible to ensuring that my employees are safe at all times at our facility. So, I can tell you that my employees are in no way in any harm or danger at the time of the incident or ever since then,” said Farok Sharif, Nuclear Waste Partnership President.
The employees inhaled particles of radiation while working above ground the night of the leak on February 14.
Now officials will test employees who worked the day after the leak to see if they have been exposed.
Every day, between 300-500 employees work at the plant.
Even with the plant being shut down, WIPP said more than 100 workers showed up for work Thursday.
And according to WIPP officials, many others are ready to come back.
“Amazingly enough, my employees are very anxious to get back to work," said Sharif.
Amidst all of the understandable concerns, WIPP officials are adamant there is no need to worry and the public is not in danger.
But there are still a lot of questions that even WIPP officials don’t know.
“So, for me to say I don't know that is the most accurate information that I have," said Sharif.
They won’t know what caused the leak until they re-enter the underground facility which they said could take weeks.
“Let me emphasize again, we will not rush this process,” said Sharif. “We have a plan to ensure that our employees are safe and we will not deviate from this plan."
Airborne radiation was detected a half-mile from the plant.
WIPP said the levels tested so far are less than you would get from a chest x-ray.
More testing is expected over the next few weeks.
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"Growing up in Malaysia, it's kind of a great thing to go abroad and get an education abroad," Sharif said. So I actually had options, whether I go to Canada, Australia or the U.S. ... I was fortunate enough that my family had enough money to send me off, so I chose the United States — of course."
He first attended College of the Ozarks in Arkansas before transferring to New Mexico State University upon meeting his wife, who was from Carlsbad.
But coming to America was not just about the honor associated with education here. Sharif also wanted to be successful in the way his father had been. At the age of 15, his dad moved to Malaysia from India and started his own butcher shop. "It started very, very small, very modest, to something that was quite profitable.
"So when this opportunity came, (I thought) my dad left India and started fresh with whatever he could carry and did really, really well. And maybe I could do the same thing — go to a different country and start something. It worked out very well, too."
When Sharif graduated, he got a job in Idaho working in the phosphate-based fertilizer business dealing with hazardous materials. He soon got promoted and moved to Florida, where he worked in the mining industry. When an opportunity arose at the U.S. Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, he took it, starting out in the packaging and transportation group and working his way up.
"I was not shy in jumping in the middle of everything. Even with the jobs and projects people didn't want, I took it," he said.
Sharif is now president and general manager of Washington TRU Solutions, which manges and operates WIPP. He has been in nuclear waste management for 21 years.
Q: Most people don't grow up saying they want to have a career in nuclear waste. What did you think you wanted to do?
A: I wanted to be a cop.
Q: Did you ever pursue that?
A: I was a lieutenant in the (Police) Reserves (in Carlsbad). ...You are a volunteer, you don't get paid, but you wear the uniform, and you ride with the certified officers. And once you are with the certified officers you actually have the same exact authority as a police officer. So I did that for 11 years. ... Now that I've taken this job, I travel quite a bit and I just don't have the time to do that.
Q: Why do you like what you do at WIPP?
A: If you look at WIPP, it's the only one in the world actually, and we are the pioneer. So working at the only one in the world that's operating and licensed and, by the way, us solving a major problem — to me that just fascinated me. We are actually leading the way for everybody else in the world. They all want one; they don't have one. So ours is a model. We are the trendsetter.
Q: That's got to be a lot of pressure.
A: If I sit and think about it, it overwhelms you. I take it one step at a time. ... Because this job here, a small mistake can cost and cause a lot of problems. ... You have to think strategically, you have to see the future and you just have to pull it all together. It's kind of hard to comprehend that I've gone from a simple life in Malaysia now to I'm doing this.
Q: You are obviously passionate about your job. Is there anything outside of that you are equally passionate about?
A: I love cars. My baby's sitting right out there (pointing to a BMW M3).
Q: Malaysia is not a poor or lacking country. Why move, and why America when you could have gone anywhere?
A: It is the opportunity. America is, it's an awesome country. We take it for granted here. ... Malaysia's very, very modern. They have some of the most advanced highways, buildings, shopping malls, communications, manufacturing, you name it, they have it all. If you look at the hotels, our hotels don't even compare to some of the stuff that they have. ... Everything is just overwhelmingly good. People are wealthy, people make money, there's all kinds of opportunities in businesses and on and on and on. Really the difference is the freedom to speak out, the freedom to do whatever you want and the transparency of everything. I don't have that freedom in any of the other countries, and people value your individualistic talents and so on here more than there. So I'm here. I pick the U.S. I'd still do it. Malaysia's a great place to visit, but this is home.
The Basics: Born Mohammad Farok Sharif in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, on March 7, 1962, attended College of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Ark., for two years before transferring to New Mexico State University where he obtained his bachelor's degree in production operations management and a master's degree in business administration; married to Cindy since Jan. 26, 1985; daughter Ari, 21, and son Troy, 18; cat named Tigger.
Position: President and general manager of Washington TRU Solutions, which manages and operates the U.S. Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. He is also a judge and on the board of directors for Quality New Mexico, a 2007 graduate of Leadership New Mexico, and a board member of the Carlsbad Department of Development.
What You Didn't Know: "In college while I was in Arkansas, I auditioned with Up With People. ... I sang a Commodore's song. It was the '80s. ... I got selected, I chickened out and did not go. My family sent me (to the U.S.) to go to the university, and I'd have to take a whole year off to go sing and dance with a bunch of other young people wherever they sent us. ... I don't know whether it was just a feeling of responsibility (to stay in school) or what."
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