The business dismissed recently for slow progress in building a new underground ventilation system for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant expects to leave the New Mexico project by the end of the month.
The parties are working out a financial settlement, said Mark Christensen, owner and president of Christensen Building Group, and member of the management group for Critical Applications Alliance, the venture comprised of the Houston-based Christensen firm and Kilgore Industries.
“We are close to fully demobilizing the resources from the project site,” Christensen said in a Monday phone interview with Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The subcontractor is still receiving previously-ordered materials, he added.
All Critical Applications Alliance employees should be gone from the site near Carlsbad by the end of the month. The turnover of all records and paperwork to DOE and prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership should be finished within 90 days, Christensen said.
Nuclear Waste Partnership late last month pulled the plug on the $138-million subcontract for Critical Applications Alliance. Aborting the deal awarded in November 2018 was deemed a “termination for convenience.” It is a term that federal agencies use to prematurely end agreements for a variety of reasons when in the government’s interest.
The Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System is meant to increase underground airflow by about three times the present level to about 540,000 cubic feet per minute. The upgraded ventilation is meant to enable WIPP to simultaneously emplace transuranic waste, mine salt to open up more room for disposal and conduct maintenance. The disposal site has been on reduced operations since a February 2014 radiation leak that damaged parts of the underground and kept the facility offline about three years.
The Department of Energy initially expected the project would be finished in 2021. Now, however, the agency says it will be at least 2023 and an updated timeline won’t be firm until the project is re-baselined.
Christensen said the schedule suffered in part because of a large number of changes from the original plan that were made over the past two years by DOE and its contractor.
The subcontractor had been working with DOE and Nuclear Waste Partnership right up until the termination at the end of August to implement the changes to facilities such as the planned salt reduction building and a new filter building on the surface Christensen said.
Restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic also played a role, Christensen said. “There were extensive travel restrictions within the state of New Mexico.” There were also times in the past six months that the prime contractor’s presence on-site was greatly diminished, making coordination more difficult, he added.
Currently, Critical Applications Alliance is trying to ensure a smooth transition of the ventilation project back to DOE and its prime contract.
“We understand its importance to the WIPP site,” Christensen said.
