EnergySolutions on Tuesday played down a lawsuit filed by its former partner on a major remediation project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), saying it never received a copy of a January complaint from Environmental Dimensions Inc., of Albuquerque N.M.
Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions, by far the larger of the two companies, was a subcontractor to Environmental Dimensions on a potentially $200 million contract for transuranic waste cleanup at LANL.
In a complaint filed Jan. 31 in New Mexico’s Second Judicial District — which includes Albuquerque, but not LANL — Environmental Dimensions alleged EnergySolutions ultimately cost the Albuquerque-based company a chance to collect the full $200 million it could have received from LANL prime contractor Los Alamos National Security under a master task order agreement-2 catalog-style contract for transuranic waste processing.
“The allegations are not true,” an EnergySolutions spokesperson said by email. “To my knowledge the complaint was never served on EnergySolutions and was filed only to secure a venue because EnergySolutions is attempting to collect amounts due and owing from Environmental Dimensions.”
EnergySolutions is attempting to collect $1.1 million from Environmental Dimensions, which the smaller company refuses to pay on the grounds it never authorized the larger company to do some of the work for which it is attempting to collect fees, according to the complaint.
The Environmental Dimensions claim relates to EnergySolutions’ role in the 2014 underground radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., the complaint says. A 2015 DOE accident investigation board report found EnergySolutions and the lab had in 2011 allowed an organic absorbent to be allowed into transuranic waste barrels, one of which later burst open at WIPP. The facility has since then been closed to waste shipments, though DOE hopes to reopen the site in December of this year.
In its lawsuit, Environmental Dimensions alleged EnergySolutions knew, or should have known, that its actions in 2011 would cost the smaller company revenue under its 2012 contract with Los Alamos National Security. After the 2014 radiation release at WIPP, Environmental Dimensions said in its complaint, Los Alamos National Security moved “to void or reduce tasks” the company could have been paid to do under the 2012 contract.
