The Department of Energy withheld a quarter of the potential $461,000 fee for contractor CH2M Hill B&W West Valley (CHBWV), limiting the ceiling to $346,000 for its cleanup work in the latest performance period at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York.
The fee was withheld for the contractor’s performance from March 1 through Aug. 28, according to a recent scorecard from the Energy Department.
CH2M Hill B&W West Valley earned only $225,000 after it lost 25 percent of its potential fee as a result of a June 4 notice of violation from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, DOE said in its assessment.
The contractor shipped a drum of mixed waste that was mislabeled as Class A waste to an EnergySolutions facility in Clive, Utah for disposal of low-level radioactive waste. The West Valley contractor paid the state of Utah a $5,000 penalty
In addition to paying the fine, CH2M Hill B&W West Valley also implemented changes to prevent the situation from happening again, according to Don Verbica, a section manager for low-level radioactive waste with the Utah DEQ. The steps include more pre-shipment radiological testing and inspection. The drum was subsequently sent to a waste facility in Tennessee.
Overall, the Energy Department rated CHBWV “very good” for business administration and “good” for three other categories: safety, health and quality management; project management; and environmental and regulatory compliance.
Last time around, CHBWV got 80 percent, or $365,000, of the potential fee available during its prior review period from Aug. 30, 2017, through Feb. 28.
The West Valley vendor team has a $542.3 million contract from 2011 through early March 2020. The contractor handles Phase 1 decommissioning at the former nuclear fuel reprocessing site. Its duties include demolition of old structures, and removing contaminated equipment and waste material.
