Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
1/23/2015
Savannah River Site managing contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions earned 86 percent of its available award fee for Fiscal Year 2014, according to award fee information the Department of Energy released this week. SRNS earned 94 percent of its available fee for cleanup work, totaling $23.9 million, but did not score as high in its National Nuclear Security Administration work. As previously reported, SRNS earned 75 percent of its NNSA fee, totaling about $16 million. It also earned a composite performance rating of 82 percent. “This performance rating is very good,” says DOE’s award fee determination scorecard for SRNS. “This rating means the contractor exceeded many of the significant award fee criteria and met performance requirements of the contract.” The performance rating is similar to last year, when SRNS earned 84 percent of its total available FY’13 award fee.
DOE detailed numerous achievements for SRNS during FY’14 in the scorecard. That includes the contractor’s support during the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant recovery providing analysis at the lab and material and equipment for recovery efforts. Nuclear materials received “outstanding comments” from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the scorecard states. DOE also noted the five-year clean safety record at Savannah River National Laboratory, which “continues to set the safety performance benchmark for all DOE National Laboratories,” according to the scorecard. And “significant progress” has been made in the management of “site overhead pools,” DOE said, “by placing these budgets under configuration control and applying disciplined project management and oversight.”
Issues Include EVMS Revocation, Emergency Management
However, at the top of the list of deficiencies was the revocation of SRNS’ Earned Value Management System certification. “Over the past sixteen months, although significant progress has been made toward recertification, the fact remains the SRNS EVMS is still not certified and won’t be until late FY2015,” the scorecard states. “With the EVMS not being certified, this calls in to question how EVMS principles are being applied to non-capital asset scope and the integrity of data being reported.”
In the site’s Emergency Management program there has been a “decline in overall performance,” according to DOE. It also notes issues with conduct of engineering, the management of spare parts, and conduct of operations in the tritium programs. Additionally, “Poor execution of site procedures and federal requirements used to protect production records resulted in destruction of 17,000 total records including supporting documentation,” the scorecard states.
SRNS ‘Proud’ of the Work Performed
SRNS this week highlighted its achievements in FY’14. “SRNS is proud of the work that we performed during FY14 and of achieving a high standard of performance for our DOE and NNSA customers,” SRNS spokeswoman Barbara Smoak said in a written response. “We are especially proud of our employees who were recognized for their commitment to safety and security; the role that SRNL continues to play to solve national and international challenges; the support to EM for the WIPP Recovery; and the outstanding comments received from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Safety Analysis.”
Smoak added: “SRNS works closely with our EM and NNSA customers on an ongoing basis, and we hold ourselves against the high standards of performance that our important missions require. While we are proud of how well we deliver on our missions, there is always opportunity for improvement. We will continue to work with our customers to identify those opportunities and to constantly work to improve our performance.”
