Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the prime in charge of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, garnered an “excellent” scorecard from the feds and took home about $38.8 million, or 96%, of its potential fee for the last 10 months of fiscal 2021.
Meanwhile, Battelle Savannah River Alliance, the new spinoff prime contractor for the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), earned $1.14 million, or 95%, of the $1.2 million available award fee for its first 100 days running the lab, according to its scorecard.
DOE posted both scorecards Tuesday.
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), which thanks to a November decision by DOE to table a new solicitation will stay on at the 310-square-mile complex for the near term, earned just over $9 million, or 91%, of its subjective fee for overseeing the site for the period spanning Dec. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021. Its objective fee for the period was roughly $23 million or almost 99%.
SRNS also received $2.6 million, or 93%, of its subjective fee for its final months at the helm of SRNL, from Dec. 1, 2020 to June 19, 2021, before management of the lab passed to Battelle Savannah River Alliance on June 20.
As of Wednesday, DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration had yet to determine its fee award for SRNL’s final period of lab work. The semi-autonomous nuclear-weapon steward pays a portion of the fees for the site’s management and operations contract, and under the old arrangement paid out fees for the lab, too.
While its review overall was favorable, SRNS was dinged for problems resulting in K Area Interim Surveillance glove box work being paused.
A spokesperson for SRNS declined to comment about the hiccup with the glove box.
But SRNS received kudos from DOE for: going 9.5 million hours without losing a workday due to an on-the-job injury; beating its small business goal of 55% with of 75%; ensuring a smooth transition to the new lab contractor and setting up onsite COVID-19 testing and vaccination centers.
SRNS has held the operations contract for Savannah River, now valued at $15.8 billion, since August 2008. While the current expiration date is listed as Sept. 30, the DOE in November indefinitely tabled plans for a final request for proposals, ensuring the incumbent will stick around for a while.
Meanwhile, Battelle Savannah River Alliance was like SRNS praised by DOE for ensuring the laboratory at Savannah River remained the safest national lab in the DOE complex. The new contractor also successfully recruited and brought onboard 125 new staff members.
Battelle Savannah River could do better on its “contractor assurance” program to identify problems and prevent them from recurring, according to DOE. The evaluation period for the lab contract was from June 21 to Sept. 30 of last year.
