Bechtel National of San Francisco earned $8.3 million in award fees from the Energy Department for its work last year on the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash. — two-thirds of the total possible award, according to a document DOE’s Office of River Protection (ORP) published Monday.
Most of the money Bechtel left on the table for its work on the facility that eventually will turn 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste into radioactive glass was due to poor marks in three project management categories: nuclear safety; quality assurance program and quality of performance; and technical issue resolution.
In each of those three categories, Bechtel earned only half as much as it could have, or less, the company’s annual award fee determination scorecard shows. DOE said, among other things, that Bechtel has not clearly outlined its plans for developing the nuclear safety documents required for WTP construction, and that the company has not properly maintained the parts of the facility it has already built.
However, the company earned 97 percent and 100 percent of the potential award fee for the other two project management line items: respectively, environmental/safety/health and safety conscious work environment, and One System. One System refers to the WTP modifications required to bring the facility partially online by 2022 to treat low-level liquid waste.
The company also fared reasonably well in the project performance line item that was the sole objective in the cost category, earning $2.65 million, or 75 percent of total possible award.
The assessment covers work performed between Jan. 31 and Dec. 31, 2015. In both the project management and cost categories, Bechtel National earned a “good” rating.
Bechtel is building WTP under an $11.4 billion DOE contract awarded in 2000. Part of the plant is expected to open in 2022 to treat low-level liquid waste. High-level liquid waste treatment must begin by 2036, according to a deadline a federal judge set in March. Including parts of the project not managed by Bechtel, the total cost of WTP is about $12.3 billion, and rising, according to DOE.
Despite DOE’s criticisms, the 2015 award fee was Bechtel’s highest in the last 12 award periods, Peggy McCullough, the company’s WTP project director, said in an April 11 note to employees.
“Listening to, understanding, and responding to customer feedback is extremely important,” McCullough wrote in the missive, a copy of which was provided to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing by a Bechtel spokesperson. “Our continued improvement is good, but we can and must do better. We hold ourselves to the highest standards, and we are working cooperatively with ORP to meet them.”
The Bechtel spokesperson declined to address DOE’s criticisms.
