Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
2/14/2014
Senior management at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant has not established a culture “in which quality is a core value,” an internal review has found. The results of a “common cause analysis” into the long-stand quality assurance issues at the WTP, chartered by project contractor Bechtel National, were outlined in a Jan. 30 presentation obtained by WC Monitor last week. The analysis found that the “root cause” of the Hanford vit plant’s quality issues is that, “WTP Leadership, through its action, inaction and (or) lack of recognition, has not created and sustained a culture in which quality is a core value,” the presentation says. As examples, the presentation cites a “lack of alignment between Project and its customer on quality performance standards”; “failure to fully capitalize on good practice from other nuclear operations”; and a “lack of appreciation for human performance factors,” among others.
Bechtel National has come under heavy scrutiny for quality concerns at the WTP, one of the Department of Energy’s largest and most expensive projects. The issue has been the subject of investigations performed by the DOE Inspector General’s Office and the Department’s Office of Health, Safety and Security. Last October, the DOE Office of River Protection notified Bechtel National that an audit of its quality assurance program and corrective action program found that they had not been “implemented in accordance with requirements” and were “not fully effective.” Quality concerns have also played a factor in fee Bechtel National has earned at the WTP—for the first six months of 2013, the contractor earned only slightly less than half of the available fee of $6.3 million, with DOE citing Bechtel National’s quality assurance program among a set of “key negatives.” Quality concerns at the WTP have even prompted Congressional attention, with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) having sent a letter to the Department last fall seeking information on how DOE planned to resolve the issue (WC Monitor, Vol. 24 No. 39).
Bechtel National spokeswoman Suzanne Heaston said late this week that the latest review into QA concerns has not yet been finalized, but stressed that quality is a “core value” at Bechtel. “Our proven ability to design and construct complex and first-of-a-kind facilities that meet our customers’ requirements has been demonstrated in thousands of facilities around the world for more than 100 years,” she said in a written response.
Management, Process Concerns
Among the “contributing causes” of the WTP’s quality assurance issues, the latest review found, is that the project has adopted “a suite of non-nuclear EPC model practices that were not designed or intended to support nuclear construction quality expectations.” The review also found that the WTP’s “infrastructure to support procedure compliance, and therefore quality, is incomplete and unlikely to be successful without additional supporting details,” such as, “Visible evidence that management adheres to procedures,” the Jan. 30 presentation says. Project organizations were found to be “encouraged and enabled to focus primarily on their own quality improvements versus implementing systemic quality improvements that cross organizational boundaries,” according to the presentation.
In addition, the common cause analysis found several examples of “attenuation of management attention to quality issues,” according to the presentation. “As evidenced in major WTP initiatives … management involvement in investigating quality issues is typically strong, but wanes considerably through corrective action closure, both practically and by procedure,” the presentation says. “Project executives typically rotate approximately every 3 years. Combined with the long cycle time on PIER issues, this results in a loss of executive continuity on major improvement initiatives.”
The level of scrutiny the Hanford vit plant faces may also be playing a factor, according to the presentation. “The high level of oversight activity applied to the WTP Project results in a considerable demand on management’s attention to support reviews, both technically and logistically,” the presentation says, adding, “Managers reported spending the majority of their time in meetings, sometimes delivering or receiving the same information multiple times.”
DOE Gives Bechtel Two Years to Make Improvements
In an effort to finally resolve the WTP’s quality issues, DOE has directed Bechtel National to develop an “integrated, comprehensive Management Improvement Plan” that will address “all systemic QA program and implementation issues,” according to an Oct. 28, 2013, letter from Office of River Protection Manager Kevin Smith, obtained by WC Monitor through a Freedom of Information Act request. “To support the future startup of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, BNI is to address the range of causal factors in sufficient breadth and depth to fully identify and resolve the contributors to the current programmatic integration and quality implementation issues in order to be fully compliant with DOE directives,” Smith wrote.
DOE has given Bechtel National two years to make the improvements to its quality assurance program. “ORP expects that it will take BNI up to two years to complete all actions and demonstrate that all organizations are effectively implementing all requirements. During this period, ORP will perform additional assessments to ensure BNI has been successful in addressing all Quality Assurance program issues identified by the audit and the subject of the MIP,” a Department official said this week in a written response. “ BNI is aggressively taking actions to improve the WTP Quality Assurance Plan (QAP), and appropriate initial corrective actions are in place but have not been implemented or verified to ensure that current activities meet all requirements. ORP recognizes that it will take considerable effort and time to demonstrate a fully effective QAP,” the official said.
Bechtel National currently expects to submit its Management Improvement Plant to DOE next month, Heaston said, noting that the contractor has already begun taking steps to make QA improvements. “The actions include completing a procedure use and adherence training session for all WTP managers and supervisors; issuing a policy on procedure use and adherence; implementing the use of pre-job briefings for some non-manual activities; designating a subject matter expert for each procedure to provide consistent guidance and interpretation to employees when implementing procedures; and clarifying accountability for corrective actions,” she said. Heaston added, “Self- identification of issues and the performance of audits are important aspects of BNI’s management activities. BNI will continue to self-identify issues, thoroughly investigate them and embed our learning into the WTP execution infrastructure to continuously improve throughout the entire tenure of the project.”
