SWPF, Tank Closure Teams Earn DOE Awards
The Department of Energy this week doled out two Honor Awards related to tank waste cleanup at the Savannah River Site, one to the Salt Waste Processing Renegotiation Team and one to the tank closure team. The SWPF team negotiated a new agreement for the construction of the plant after delays in delivery of key components. After the delay, contractor Parsons subsequently revised its estimate in 2012 to increase total project cost by $437 million in order to meet an October 2015 regulatory commitment for startup. But the contract modification agreed to in June 2013 places a $530 million target for completion of construction by the end of 2016, not including startup. Commissioning and startup talks have not yet been completed (WC Monitor. Vol. 24 No. 26).
However, the DOE release states that the renegotiation team “was honored for negotiating savings of more than $235 million for construction of this critical component of the SRS Liquid Waste Tank cleanup program. The team also accelerated the facility’s target completion date by more than 2.5 years.” A DOE spokesperson said in a statement: “The delay in delivery of process vessels of adequate quality affected the targeted construction completion schedule and the project cost. The Department of Energy worked with the contractor to come to a significantly better project plan which aligns the contractor responsibilities with the Department’s goals of completing construction safely and closing waste tanks to reduce risk at Savannah River Site. The resulting savings and acceleration of construction beyond the contractor’s proposed positions resulted in a Salt Waste Processing Facility contract modification that caps American taxpayer liability for construction.”
Another award went to the team that successfully closed four high-level waste tanks in 2012 and 2013, which included people from Office of Environmental Management headquarters, the DOE Savannah River Operations Office, contractor Savannah River Remediation, and Savannah River National Laboratory. “The team members gained public involvement by conducting educational forums and other public meetings to identify and resolve issues early in the project and to lay out the approaches for closing the tanks and assessing their work. They also received high marks for employing mechanical, chemical, and robotic cleaning technologies that ensured waste was effectively removed from the tanks,” states a DOE release.
