Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, the Jacobs-led cleanup contractor at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, earned 69% of its overall potential fee but less than half of its fee resulting from the Department of Energy’s subjective ratings during fiscal 2020.
Meanwhile, Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services earned 87% of its potential fee for running the depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plants at the DOE’s Paducah Site in Kentucky and Portsmouth Site in Ohio, for the year ended Sept. 30, 2020.
While Four Rivers won about $5.4 million out of a total pot of $7.8 million, it earned only $1.7 million out of almost $3.9 million in the subjectively-judged scorecard categories by DOE. That translates to 44% in subjective fees issued to the joint venture composed of Jacobs, Fluor and BWX Technologies.
Four Rivers has a $1.4-billion contract with a five-year base period extending through June 19, 2022, for deactivation and remediation of the former gaseous diffusion plant complex.
The DOE subjectively rated Four Rivers as “satisfactory” on quality, schedule, cost control, management and regulatory compliance. It was deemed “very good” on implementation of business systems. A year ago Four River garnered 67% of its overall fee at Paducah.
“Overall, the contractor did not meet some of the contractual requirements and expectations,” DOE said in the scorecard. There were “numerous work pauses” that resulted in significant project delay, the agency said.
On cost control, the “minimal requirements of the contract were met” but there were problems, DOE said. “On the C-400 Deactivation project, physical pre-demolition work was completed in September 2020,” but at a cost of $21.7 million on a project that was budgeted at $7.9 million, DOE said in the document. C-400 is a 1950s vintage structure for cleaning and decontaminating equipment that was used in uranium enrichment.
As for Mid-America Conversion Services, it earned roughly $2.88 million out of a potential $3.30 million for the last fiscal year, which translates to 87% of the possible take. It won roughly $1.33 million out of a potential $1.68 million in its subjectively-judged fee, or 79%.
A year ago, Mid-America won 69% of its overall potential fee.
This time around, Mid-America was judged “excellent” in its utilization of small business, “very good” in three other categories, “good” in one and “satisfactory” cost control. Mid-America Conversion Services is composed of Atkins, Westinghouse and Fluor. The joint venture has a five-year, $459-million contract that extends through January 2022.
But production facilities at the gaseous diffusion plants in Portsmouth and Paducah were run safely “until the pandemic shutdown,” according to the scorecard.
However, less than half of the annual conversion production goal, which had been reduced by DOE by one-third from the original goal, “was met by the time the pandemic shutdown eliminated further production” during fiscal 2020, the department said in the document.
