CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. lost fee money for fiscal 2017 over a spread of radioactive contamination at the Hanford Site, but still brought in $9.9 million from the Department of Energy. That is 89 percent of the nearly $11.1 million available for the budget year ended Sept. 30, 2017, according to a fee summary released by DOE on Monday.
CH2M is in its final year of a decade-long contract valued at $4.5 billion. The contract covers most of the remaining cleanup at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state, other than operations related to waste storage tanks.
The possible fee payments for fiscal 2017 were split into two categories, with 73 percent of the money available for meeting objective performance measures and the remaining 27 percent tied to a subjective review by DOE.
The subjective performance measures were worth $3 million, with CH2M earning $1.93 million, or 64 percent. The loss of more than $1 million addresses the June 2017 spread of radiological contamination at CH2M’s Plutonium Finishing Plant demolition project and then the company’s failure to take adequate corrective measures, the DOE summary says. In a draft root cause evaluation report released in March, CH2M said missteps included relying too heavily on near-real-time continuous air monitors, not fully analyzing risk, and diluting fixative used to keep radioactive material in place.
Contamination spread again at the demolition project in December, early in the current fiscal year, and demolition has not resumed in 2018. Tests showed 42 workers inhaled or ingested radioactive particles in the two incidents.
The Energy Department said CH2M needed to give attention to some other areas covered by the subjective review, including vehicle safety and a backlog of subcontract audits. It also cited the quality of change proposals, analysis of program cost and schedule changes, safety basis documentation, and appropriate accounting for depreciation.
CH2M earned 99 percent the nearly $8.1 million fee available for meeting objective performance measures or completing specific scopes of work. The only project goal among 21 that was not met on time was reroofing of the REDOX processing plant. The Plutonium Finishing Plant was not included in the tally, with that fee to be determined upon completion of demolition.
Goals that were met included treatment of 2.2 billion gallons of groundwater with chemical and radiological contamination. The contractor completed remediation of the 618-10 Burial Ground by last November, picking up the work when the River Corridor Contract held by Washington Closure Hanford expired. The burial ground had trenches and vertically buried pipes filled with waste.
CH2M also advanced preparations for removing radioactive sludge from the K West Reactor Basin to dry storage at T Plant in central Hanford. Workers completed installation of sludge removal equipment in the basin, proved equipment would work, and practiced procedures for both the removal and the storage at T Plant.
