The manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants received the lowest percentage of the available award fee for fiscal 2015 among the agency’s seven site management and operations contractors.
Consolidated Nuclear Security’s overall performance score (57 out of 100) and fee ($42.6 million of a maximum $51.2 million) were revealed in December when the NNSA fee letter was circulated. Then-CNS President Jim Haynes expressed the contractor’s disappointment at the time in a message to employees at the Tennessee and Texas facilities.
But reasons for the low score weren’t enunciated until the NNSA’s belated release Friday of the performance evaluation report, which cited significant missteps and failure to live up to expectations – particularly in the new contractor’s management of the nuclear weapons mission at Y-12 and Pantex, as well as security and other aspects of plant operations, since assuming the contract in 2014.
The NNSA made clear, even in the executive summary, that the federal overseers in the Production Office didn’t see things that same way as CNS management team regarding the company’s performance. The report noted that CNS had submitted a self-assessment report, and that the contractor should be the commended for its thoroughness – “although it did not embrace the expectation of being self-critical.” The NNSA said it considered the CNS self-assessment, but noted “in most cases” it did not agree with the contractor’s rating as being very good.
Consolidated Nuclear Security was rated in six operational areas, each given a different weight in determining the award fee. Topping the list was managing the nuclear weapons mission at the two key production plants, which accounted for 35 percent of the at-risk fee and for which the company received only a “satisfactory.”
There were several key factors that affected work on the weapons mission, including quality issues, conduct of operations issues, issues with the coordination and receipt of weapons response from the design agencies, and a work stoppage at Pantex during negotiations on a new bargaining agreement with union workers.
