UCOR, the Amentum-Jacobs partnership in charge of remediation at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, earned 98% of total potential fee or $24.7 million, during a seven-month period ended Oct. 31, according to a scorecard released this week.
The contractor, being succeeded by a joint venture made up of Amentum, Jacobs and Honeywell, earned 100% of the $15.5-million in objective performance-based milestones and 95% or more than $9.2 million out of about $9.7 million in subjective fees, according to the fee scorecard.
In six subjective fee areas, UCOR’s worst score was “good” for operations management, the scorecard shows. The DOE characterized UCOR’s performance in project management as “very good.” DOE considered the contractor’s performance “excellent” in three areas: project management and business systems; quality and safety culture along with regulatory and stakeholder activity. The contractor scored a rating of high confidence, earning 100% of its fee, on cost and schedule incentive.
The federal agency credited UCOR with more than a dozen significant accomplishments and cited only two areas for improvement during the review period, including the need for additional improvements in transportation, safety, communication, and work packages. The second opportunity for improvement involved “Powered Air Purifying Respirator usage and control of hazardous energy,” according to the scorecard.
“In some instances, components of the [respirators] were dislodged or damaged when they were caught on protruding items,” but when this happened “workers exited the work area immediately when the failure occurred,” said a DOE spokesperson Thursday. Followup testing showed no overexposure to hazardous substances, the spokesperson said.
On the upside, DOE said that in addition to finishing major work at the East Tennessee Technology Park, home of the old K-25 uranium enrichment plant complex, UCOR advanced cleanup on 27 excess contaminated facilities at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex.
In addition, “UCOR aggressively implemented a mandatory vaccination program for their workforce,” DOE said in the scorecard.
The contractor also exceeded its 65% small business target, hitting 84%, increased cyber security defenses and restarted the Liquid Low-Level Waste Evaporator at the national laboratory,” the agency said.
The review was issued by DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.
The current contractor UCOR, URS-CH2M, is in the final months of its contract now worth $4.2 billion that started in August 2011. Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge, also known as UCOR, started its 90-day transition period on a potential $8.3-billion contract at the end of February and should take over around May 29.
