Nuclear Waste Partnership, the Amentum-BWX Technologies team that runs the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, won 62% of its subjective fee for fiscal year 2021 and 72% of its overall fee, according to a Dec. 30 scorecard from the Department of Energy.
The contractor took home about $3.3 million out of a potential $5.3 million based on DOE’s subjective evaluation of work at the Waste isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2021. Nuclear Waste Partnership also won more than $9 million, or 83%, of a potential $10.9 million in performance-based incentives.
The end result, following a $761,000 fee reduction, has the WIPP prime earning $11.6 million or 72% of its total potential fee. The reason for the fee reduction was not spelled out in the scorecard, though the contractor lost some available fee associated with infrastructure metrics, including a new utility shaft and the planned Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System needed to bring WIPP’s underground work tempo back to levels achievable prior to the 2014 accidents that closed the mine for nearly three years, according to DOE’s performance evaluation and management plan for the site.
Nuclear Waste Partnership did win kudos from DOE for its transuranic waste certification and disposal during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April 2021, Nuclear Waste Partnership hired a Kiewit company to complete the Safety Significant Confined Ventilation System, a project designed to triple underground airflow and increase productivity, after the managing contractor decided to terminate the initial subcontractor.
Nuclear Waste Partnership owns the existing WIPP operations contract, currently valued at $2.7-billion, which began in October 2012 and is scheduled to run through March.
Bids were due to DOE in August on a new 10-year, $3-billion management and operations contract for the underground disposal facility for transuranic waste.
