The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) is investigating possible breaches of federal nuclear safety regulations by the cleanup contractor at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio.
The probe involves “radiation protection program implementation deficiencies at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant,” according to an Aug. 8 notice of intent to investigate Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth. Investigators plan an on-site visit and interviews with employees, Kevin Dressman, director of the EA Office of Enforcement, wrote in a letter sent that day to Fluor-BWXT Program Manager Bobby Smith.
Details of the suspected failures were not immediately available. Dressman did not respond to a query by deadline Tuesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. There was also no comment from Fluor-BWXT or DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which oversees cleanup of the former uranium enrichment complex in Pike County.
The Energy Department has been dealing with independent findings that suggest potential off-site radioactive contamination from Portsmouth at a nearby middle school. The agency, though, has said new sampling shows no radiation above background levels at the school.
The specific DOE regulations in question cover nuclear safety management and occupational radiation protection programs, according to the EA notice. Violation of the rules can result in civil and criminal penalties.
“Under the Major Fraud Act (MFA), as amended, 41 U.S.C. § 4310, this investigation may be a proceeding commenced by the United States that relates to a violation of, or the failure to comply with, a Federal regulation,” Dressman wrote in his Aug. 8 letter. “Costs incurred in connection with such a proceeding are subject to the reimbursement restrictions of the MFA implemented at 48 C.F.R. § 31.205-47. As a result, FBP should track any costs incurred that are directly attributable to supporting the investigation, subsequent to receipt of this letter, and segregate them from other potentially allowable costs.”
Fluor-BWXT is working the final 30-month option of what is now a 10-year, $3.7 billion environmental remediation contract at Portsmouth that will keep it on the job through March 2021.
