With 2023 winding down, the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office this week offered a broad overview of how most of its nuclear-weapons cleanup contractors performed during the year.
In a widely distributed statement on Tuesday, the Office of Environmental Management shared contractor performance ratings that mostly spanned fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30. DOE had not published all the contractor scorecards online as of deadline for Weapons Complex Monitor.
- Hanford Site in Washington state: Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions, the tank operations contractor in charge of liquid radioactive waste, was awarded nearly $38.5 million, or 82% of the available fee of about $47 million for the 2023 government fiscal year, DOE said. Its fee-takes were similar on objective, or measurable, goals, at 81%, and subjective performance as judged by DOE at 84%, according to the fee scorecard.
The contractor is “focused on the increased pace of operations” as it marches toward solidification of liquid tank waste at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant starting in 2025, DOE said, but the agency wants to see the contractor “address nuclear safety emergent issues” while working at the increased tempo.
- Navarro-led Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration, which runs the 222-S Laboratory that provides storage and analytical support for Hanford’s tank waste, won about $3.4 million, or 74% of the available $4.6-million fee for its work.
The contractor earned 69% of its objective fee, a relatively low take that stemmed mostly from “negative trends” in the “laboratory upgrades and improvements” category, where the company got only 26% of the available objective fee. According to the fee scorecard, these negative trends affected the 222-S lab’s hot cell window upgrade, Laboratory Information Management System upgrade, and room renovations. A Hanford spokesperson would not add details beyond the scorecard.
Meanwhile, the contractor got 82% of its overall subjective fee, according to the scorecard.
- Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina: Fluor-led management prime Savannah River Nuclear Solutions received over $27.9 million, or 96% of the available pot of nearly $29 million. It earned nearly 100% of its objective fee and 90% of the subjective fee, according to the scorecard.
The contractor “excelled in sound financial execution” and also replaced about 19% of the site’s gasoline powered light duty fleet with electric vehicles. But on the downside, a spill occurred in H-Canyon chemical separations facility during routine work that “would not have occurred if the workers had adequately verified set-up of the leak collection device” beforehand, according to the scorecard.
- BWX Technologies-led liquid waste contractor Savannah River Mission Completion took home more than $1.72 million, or nearly 99% of the available fee of about $1.74 million. The contractor got 100% of the objective and 84% of the subjective fee, according to the scorecard. During March an employee injured on the job had what is officially called days away, restricted duty or transfer, or DART, according to the scorecard.
- Centerra-Savannah River Site, the security contractor, was awarded more than $4.76 million, or 92% of the available fee of over $5.16 million for the period of Oct. 8, 2022, to July 14, 2023. After a series of protests, Centerra started a new decade-long, $1 billion contract in July. The contractor’s scorecard ratings are largely subjective.
- Savannah River National Laboratory: Management contractor Battelle Savannah River Alliance earned nearly $5.9 million, or 97% of the almost $6.1 million available, according to the scorecard. The Battelle-led contractor provides scientific and technological support at the research and development laboratory, which mostly serves DOE’s nuclear waste cleanup program. It also does some work for the agency’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of Science and other government and private partners.
- Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee: Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR), earned nearly $29 million, or 94% of the available fee of about $31 million for the fiscal year. UCOR won 100% of the objective fee and 90% of the subjective fee, according to the scorecard. Among other things, UCOR met DOE sustainability goals by ordering electric vehicles and charging stations. In some areas, however, the contractor needs to improve hazard identification, the agency wrote.
- Paducah Site in Kentucky: Jacobs-led remediation contractor Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, won about $8 million, or 92% of the available fee of nearly $8.7 million for the fiscal year, according to DOE.
- Portsmouth Site in Ohio: Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, the decontamination and decommissioning contractor, earned about $11.5 million, or 97% of the available fee of more than $11.8 million for the six-month period of March 29 to Sept. 30, according to DOE.
For the past two years, DOE has reviewed this contract in six-month increments. In July, DOE announced the selection of an Amentum-Fluor-Cavendish team to succeed the incumbent. As of deadline for Weapons Complex Monitor, the agency had not started transitioning the site to the new contractor.
- Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services, which runs the depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plants at Portsmouth and Paducah, earned about $6.7 million, or 61% of the available $11 million fee for the fiscal year, according to DOE. The industry continues to await the award of a follow-on DUF6 contract that will also include certain operations and site maintenance work.
- Nevada National Security Site: Remediation contractor Navarro Research and Engineering took home nearly $1.82 million, or 93% of the available fee of almost $1.96 million for the fiscal year, according to DOE.
- Idaho National Laboratory: Jacobs-led cleanup contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition received nearly $35.2 million, or 96% of the available fee of more than $36.8 million for fiscal year 2023, according to DOE. The contractor team won 87% of the subjective and virtually 100% of the objective fee, according to the scorecard.
The work included the startup of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, which has treated 68,000 gallons of sodium-bearing radioactive waste since starting operation in April.The facility is targeted to return from a maintenance outage in the next month or so.
- Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico: Legacy remediation contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) earned more than $13.2 million, or 77% of the available fee of about $17.2 million for the fiscal year. This included 79% of the objective fee and 73% of the subjective fee, according to the scorecard.
While N3B has improved its safety culture and employee concerns program, it needs to improve its management coordination with DOE on “key deliverables and schedule,” according to the scorecard. N3B changed presidents in June a couple of months after DOE exercised its three-year option to keep the contractor in place into 2026.
- Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico: Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, the prime, earned about $11.5 million, or about 89% of the available $13 million fee for the period of Feb. 4 to Sept. 30 this year, according to DOE. Salado took over from an Amentum-BWXT partnership in February.
