A recently unsealed lawsuit accuses a former U.S. Department of Energy contractor at the Savannah River Site’s now-canceled plutonium recycling plant of filings thousands of dollars’ worth of false claims by paying out a relocation package to an employee who never actually moved.
Then, when employee Peter Michael Wanco Jr. resigned from MOX Services after allegedly being penalized for not signing off on suspect work, the company attempted to recoup the $21,000 relocation package it had given him at the start of his employment, according to the lawsuit.
Wanco and the U.S. government sued MOX Services and Orano Federal Services, one of the contractor’s parent companies, on Jan. 23, 2019, in U.S. District Court of South Carolina. It is unclear why the lawsuit was kept sealed until Jan. 2 of this year.
According to the complaint, Wanco lived in Irmo, S.C., about 70 miles from the 310-square-mile Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. On Dec. 19, 2016, he began working for MOX Services as a welding and mechanical quality control inspector for construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF), which was intended to convert weapon-usable plutonium into commercial nuclear fuel.
Wanco had initially asked for a monthly per diem because he planned to commute each day. But Shakir Jones, a recruiter with AREVA (the former name of Orano), instead offered Wanco the relocation package, the lawsuit says. “Jones explained that Mr. Wanco did not need to move and could use the relocation package any way [he] like[d],’ because ‘[w]e don’t require proof or receipts on how you use the money. If you decide to rent a place, that would be fine,’” the federal government stated in the complaint.
MOX Services ultimately paid out the relocation package, worth $21,000, to Wanco and filed it as an allowable cost in a claim to the federal government.
In October 2017, Wanco attempted to revise a welding inspection plan because it provided insufficient information that would not have allowed for a thorough inspection, thereby resulting in safety and hazard issues at the MFFF. His version of the plan was eventually ignored, the lawsuit says. In March 2018, Wanco was allegedly asked to revise the accepted plan to keep it up to date on changes to the MOX project. When he refused, he was demoted to field work so he could earn a civil engineering certification, the lawsuit states: “This civil certification was a demotion from Mr. Wanco’s area of expertise and would not benefit him professionally in any way.”
Wanco resigned on March 26, 2018. About nine months later, the federal government and Wanco filed suit, with each seeking money from the two companies.
The federal government is seeking $63,000, which is three times the damages suffered from the $21,000 it paid in unallowable relocation dollars. Asking for three times the amount is permitted under the federal False Claims Act. It is unclear if $21,000 is the standard relocation payment amount for MOX Services.
Wanco is seeking double the back pay for the money he lost as a result of his demotion and resignation. It is unclear how much that is. The parties are also seeking payment of attorney fees and other costs accrued from the lawsuit.
MOX Services and Orano have not filed a response as of Friday. Orano did not respond to a request for comment.
After spending more than $8 billion on the project since construction began in 2007, the Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration formally terminated construction of the MFFF in October 2018. Originally expected to cost $17 billion – covering design, construction, operations, and closure – the price tag ballooned to $51 billion, according to DOE estimates.
In lieu of MOX, the Energy Department is moving forward with downblending, an alternative that will dilute the plutonium at SRS using inhibitor materials. The final product will be sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, N.M., for permanent disposal. That mission is expected to cost $17 billion.
In November, the NNSA and MOX Services reached a joint settlement on nine lawsuits in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (CFC). All of the cases involved attempts by the contractor to recoup dollars the Energy Department had allegedly failed to pay, ranging from nonpayment of work to not honoring work-based incentive payments. The settlement was valued at $186 million.
The deal addressed all legal issues between the NNSA and MOX Services, except “potential claims under the False Claims Act, the Anti-Kickback Act, or for any civil or criminal fraud,” according to the press release.
An NNSA spokesperson said last month that the contractor has no current responsibilities at SRS, adding that remaining activities to shutter the MOX facility will be handled by site management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. MOX Services is closing out its remaining subcontracts, vendor agreements, and other obligations.
