Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
4/11/2014
With operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant currently on hold, and the timetable for their resumption unclear, Idaho Treatment Group, LLC, is in discussions with the Department of Energy on modifying how it will be able to earn fee for operating the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project. ITG currently earns fee based on the amount of cubic meters of waste shipped off-site from Idaho, and it remains to be seen when the contractor will be able to resume shipments to WIPP. “Our contract calls for shipped waste, however, working to align our shipments with WIPP’s shipment schedule we are looking at certified TRU and shipped Mixed Low-Level and TRU waste,” ITG spokesman Rick Dale said in a written response this week.
The AMWTP is used to process legacy transuranic waste at the Idaho site, as well as some other wastes, for off-site disposition. Under its contract, ITG can earn $894.26 per cubic meter of waste shipped. In Fiscal Year 2013, the contractor shipped 4,482 cubic meters, slightly over its target volume, and invoiced DOE for 4,000 cubic meters. After approximately $240,000 in fee reductions for key personnel departures and safety issues, DOE paid ITG a total of about $3.3 million.
Contractor Behind Baseline…
Prior to the incidents in February that shutdown WIPP, ITG had been behind its baseline shipping schedule this fiscal year due to a variety of challenges, including equipment issues, degraded waste containers and poor weather, according to a set of monthly progress reports WC Monitor obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. ITG’s baseline calls for the contractor to ship 6.537 cubic meters of waste this year. As of Feb. 17, the contractor had shipped or developed a backlog of a total of 1,056 cubic meters, according to a February monthly progress report. The report also shows a slight uptick in ITG’s shipping performance that month after a steady monthly decline each prior month this fiscal year.
Among the issues that has slowed ITG’s efforts this fiscal year is an increase in the number of degraded waste containers and boxes being retrieved from the facility where it has been stored. “The integrity of the containers continues to become more challenging as the retrieval face moves south. Operations retrieved 42 breached containers during the reporting period,” the February report says. Workers retrieved “two challenging CAT 4 waste boxes during the reporting period,” the report says, adding, “Manual repackaging efforts to address the CAT 4 boxes significant affected box production rates. As many as five more CAT 4 waste boxes are expected to be retrieved in March.” Notably, while ITG’s contract initially called for it to ship all of the remaining legacy transuranic waste at Idaho off-site by the time the contract expired at the end of FY 2015, now ITG does not expect to complete waste retrieval operations by then, according to the progress reports.
Another factor has been the time taken to resume operations at the AMWTP Treatment Facility’s boxlines after a small fire occurred last fall. The facility’s boxlines returned to unrestricted use in February. However, “the conservative Boxline restart operations consequent from the fire in September and recovery efforts” had a schedule impact, according to the February report.
ITG also experienced a partial stop work order in early October 2013 that had an impact on its production abilities. “On October 2, 2013, ITG responded to verbal requests from DOE-ID [the DOE Idaho Operations Office] to identify minimum safe project costs,” the October monthly progress report said. “On October 10, 2013,DOE-ID issued a partial stop work directive to immediately reduce work being performed. ITG responded accordingly through the suspension of services from [WIPP managing contractor] Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP)for Central Characterization Project (CCP)scope, deliveries of ten drum overpacks (TDOPs), and non-critical non-labor spending. Resources were also realigned to address impacts of the directive and to cease discretionary overtime. The stop work directive was lifted on October 17, 2013,” the report says.
…But Says It Can Meet FY14 Plan
Although ITG is behind its baseline schedule for this year, the contractor believes it can meet the targets set in a plan reached with DOE for this fiscal year. The annual operating plan, which was developed due to the partial stop work order and decreases in funding, calls for a production target of 6,198 cubic meters of waste. “ITG anticipates that as savings or efficiencies emerge throughout FY14,they will be invested in management reserve to mitigate the risks associated with the plan and focus on closing the gap with the 6,537m3 baseline plan impacted by the earlier partial stop work,” a January monthly progress report states.
According to the February monthly progress report, “Against the cumulative to date FY 14 AOP [annual operating plan], the project is performing above goals planned for Legacy TRU and MLLW shipped and Certified TRU Ready to Ship.” In a statement ITG President and Project Manager Danny Nichols said, “ITG turned in a solid performance in FY13, increasing our production levels by 36 percent over FY12, with the same budget. We’ll be challenged in FY14, due to a number of production challenges, but with a talented workforce that understands safe and compliant operations, our OpEx program that continues to aggressively identify innovative production improvements, and a skilled management team, I’m confident this proven formula will allow us to meet our production targets in FY14.”
