With the Department of Energy’s depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants offline during fiscal 2021, Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services won 70% of its subjective fee and 95% of its performance-based incentive fee, according to a scorecard published last week.
The contractor earned more than $1.3 million out of a potential $1.9 million in subjectively reviewed fees at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. At the same time, it took home $3.1 million out of a potential $3.27 million in performance-based fees for the 12-month period ended Sept. 30, 2021.
The scorecard shows $13.3 million being available for performance milestones over a multiyear period with about half of that still remaining.
After being offline since March 2020, the Paducah Site’s depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plant has been gradually ramping back up operations for the past two months, a DOE spokesperson said by phone Monday. The conversion plant at the uranium enrichment plant complex at the Portsmouth Site should follow suit later this year after completion of a readiness review, according to DOE.
Mid-America Conversion Services (MCS) “has demonstrated efficient performance during the pandemic stop work to support return to plant operations and continued to progress on plant safety modifications,” the DOE Office of Environmental Management said in the review.
The contractor team, made up of Atkins, Westinghouse and Fluor, was deemed satisfactory on cost control, good on quality and regulatory compliance, very good on schedule and excellent on both management and utilization of small business.
The DOE scorecard said more than $683,000 in fee will be paid at some point in the future for production of depleted uranium tetrafluoride (DUF4) for National Nuclear Security Administration to use in nuclear-weapon refurbishments.
Since February 2017, Mid-America has been in charge of converting DUF6 into depleted uranium oxide, a more stable chemical form that can be reused or disposed of. The current contract, valued at $703 million, is scheduled to run through March 28, 2023. The DOE has issued a draft request for proposals for a successor contract.
Editor’s note: Article modified at 9 a.m. March 1 to correct the amount of performance-based fee available during the review period.
