March 17, 2014

SRNS PUSHES BACK AGAINST NNSA CLAIM OF ‘NEGLIGENCE’ ON WSB

By ExchangeMonitor

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions is pushing back against criticism from the National Nuclear Security Administration that the Fluor-led contractor has been “negligent” in its management of the Waste Solidification Building project at the Savannah River Site. On June 12, as reported yesterday, the NNSA sent SRNS a strongly worded letter outlining a number of concerns with SRNS’ management of the project, saying that the identified performance issues are set to result in significant cost overruns for an effort last estimated to cost approximately $345 million and warning the contractor that it would be directed to return all of the fee it has earned on the project. “I am interested in your view of why I should not conclude that SRNS’ repeated delay in taking prompt and effective corrective action to address obvious and serious delays in subcontract performance does not rise to the level of gross negligence or willful misconduct, warranting disallowance of costs,” an NNSA contracting officer wrote in the June 12 letter.

In a brief message to employees yesterday, SRNS President and CEO Dwayne Wilson said the contractor has “serious concerns” with the “context” of the NNSA letter, and that SRNS would seek to challenge NNSA’s criticisms. “While we are in the process of preparing our response to a number of allegations raised by the Department, we take exception to claims that our behavior was negligent or inappropriate in any way. In fact, we will refute these statements in our reply. SRNS has operated in good faith with the Department,” Wilson wrote. “While I’m disappointed in NNSA’s approach to working to resolve issues surrounding WSB, I welcome the scrutiny and remain very proud of the work this company performs on a daily basis for the Department and our nation.” The Waste Solidification Building is intended to process the waste streams from the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility being built at Savannah River to convert plutonium taken from U.S. nuclear weapons into commercial nuclear power plant fuel. The project is being managed by SRNS and performed under a subcontract with Baker Concrete Construction.

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