Hanford Site cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. received just 80 percent of its available fee for fiscal 2018, after the Department of Energy called it out for the second year in a row over its performance at the Plutonium Finishing Plant demolition.
CH2M is responsible for environmental remediation in Hanford’s Central Plateau, plus some remaining river corridor and groundwater cleanup at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state.
In a fee scorecard Monday, the Department of Energy said CH2M earned $10.2 million of nearly $12.8 million available in the budget year that ended on Sept. 30, 2018. The previous year it earned 89 percent of a smaller fee available, or nearly $10 million of a potential $11.1 million. Pay is split between money available for completing specific scopes of work and a subjective evaluation.
The most recent scorecard shows CH2M earned just 53 percent of the $3.8 million available under its subjective performance measures, down from 64 percent the year earlier. Scorecards for both years discussed the spread of radiological contamination during demolition of the plant in June and December 2017. Demolition has been suspended since the second incident.
The fiscal 2018 subjective fee determination addressed the December spread of contamination outside posted radiological boundaries after corrective actions failed in the wake of the June spread. It also reflected the cost and schedule effects the continuing work at the Plutonium Finishing Plant has had on other Hanford projects as work has fallen behind the Tri-Party Agreement deadline to have the building demolished by September 2017.
However, DOE did say in the scorecard that CH2M had shown steady performance improvement in radiological controls, work planning, and supervisory oversight of operations at the plant. The contractor currently is loading out some radioactive waste at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, with demolition not expected to restart until late February or March.
“We overcame significant challenges, but also made great progress for the Hanford Site mission,” said Ty Blackford, contractor president. “We will continue to learn and grow.”
The Energy Department also was pleased with CH2M’s work to complete cleanup and backfill of the 618-10 Burial Ground; to start transporting highly radioactive sludge from underwater storage at the K West Reactor Basin to dry storage near the river; and to start of stabilization with grout of second waste storage tunnel at the PUREX processing plant.
CH2M earned 91 percent of the fee, or $8.2 million of $8.9 million, for completing specific work in fiscal 2018, according to the scorecard. The money it lost was for delays in submitting a final design report for a capsule storage system for the site’s cesium and strontium capsules and for some testing of contaminated soil deep underground that was not completed on time.
CH2M’s 10-year contract has been extended for an additional year through September 2019. The original contract was valued at $4.5 billion, plus $1.3 billion of economic stimulus work assigned during the Obama administration. The Energy Department requested comments on a revised draft request for proposals for the new Central Plateau Cleanup Contract by Monday of this week.
