Parsons has asked Energy Department officials to rescind a notice of concern that claimed significant mismanagement in the company’s work to start up the multibillion-dollar Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
In an April 6 letter obtained by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, Parsons SWPF project manager Frank Sheppard said the March 7 notice of concern was “inappropriate” because the company is well within the timelines and costs established in the contract with the department.
In fact, many of the issues DOE addressed in its notice stem from the department deviating from the contract, Sheppard wrote in the letter addressed to Pamela Marks, the federal project director for the facility, and Samuel Stewart, a contracting officer with DOE’s Savannah River Operations Office.
Sheppard said the Energy Department made “broad, negative assertions” about the state of affairs at the facility, including the department’s stance that it might take three extra months for SWPF to reach Critical Decision 4 (CD-4), the phase in which operations can begin. But, according to Sheppard, Parsons is on pace to meet its contractual date to begin operations — even if that’s not the December 2018 date that has been advertised.
Parsons holds a $2 billion DOE contract awarded in 2002 to design and build the Salt Waste Processing Facility, and operate it for one year. The deal is set to expire on Sept. 30, 2020.
Construction was completed in June 2016 at a cost of $2.3 billion. At that time, the Energy Department declared the December 2018 startup date, which was expected to allow enough time for testing and commissioning.
In the March notice, the department officials wrote that Parsons underperformed in various areas, including employee management, following safety protocols, and taking corrective actions in a timely manner. These and other issues have made the current project baseline unusable and have pushed the SWPF startup projection back to March 2019, according to Marks and Stewart.
