IN DOE
Parsons Government Services will pay $3.8 million to resolve claims that it intentionally charged the Department of Energy for “ineligible or inflated” personnel relocation expenses in its position as the lead builder of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
Under the company’s contract to build the facility, Parsons could charge the federal government for the relocation, food, lodging, and transportation costs eligible employees paid while moving for an assignment at the SWPF, according to a DOJ press release. Eligibility rules include employees having a permanent home at their prior location. However, Parsons was alleged to have "sought and obtained reimbursement for these relocation expenses under the SWPF contract even for employees it knew did not qualify for these payments under the terms of the contract," the DOJ said.
The resolution of the investigation included "no determination of liability," the press release says. In a prepared statement, Parsons said the "dispute is not related to Parsons’ performance on the SWPF contract. Parsons denies the allegations set forth by the United States but has opted to settle the dispute because the corporation has determined that the costs of continuing the dispute would far exceed the amount in dispute and would continue to divert valuable resources from its core mission of supporting its customers."
The Department of Energy on Monday announced that it had awarded a $15 million contract to North Wind Solutions to provide technical and support services for the West Valley Demonstration Project site in New York. The five-year contract calls for the Knoxville, Tenn.-based contractor to provide a host of services, according to a DOE press release, including environmental characterization support, support of safeguards and security, support of project execution, and ancillary administrative support. DOE is overseeing cleanup of a one-time nuclear fuel reprocessing site roughly 40 miles south of Buffalo. The agency maintains operational responsibility for about 165 acres within the state-owned 3,345-acre Western New York Nuclear Service Center.
DOE also announced on Friday that it had awarded a $4.3 million contract to Neptune and Co. to support the department and Western New York Nuclear Service Center in carrying out a probabilistic analysis “to support the Phase 2 Decision making Alternative for the West Valley Demonstration Project” and the Service Center. Under the contract, a DOE press release says, Neptune will “(1) perform sensitivity analyses to provide near-term direction to site data collection activities, (2) transition existing components of a deterministic performance assessment (PA) to a probabilistic modeling platform to identify changes necessary in the model structure, input parameter distribution, the need for additional data, or the need for different modeling approaches, (3) prepare a long term probabilistic PA to support decision making and meet requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), and (4) prepare chapters and appendices for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) as required by the SEIS Contractor. DOE and NYSERDA (the agencies) intend to conduct this work jointly, using a tripartite contract structure and sharing in oversight and cost of the work.”
The Department of Energy on Wednesday issued a request for information from companies interested in taking on the decontamination and decommissioning contract for the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. "DOE is seeking feedback from contractors and other interested parties regarding options for innovative approaches for the performance of the attached [draft performance work statement] as well as insight into potential contracting alternatives," according to a DOE press release. "This market research will assist DOE in identifying interested sources and developing its acquisition strategy."
The contract for cleanup of the former uranium enrichment site is expected to include on-site waste processing, groundwater remediation, security, nuclear materials control and accountability, and a host of other operations. DOE expects all questions and capability statements to be submitted by Sept. 16 to [email protected].
The governors of Washington and Oregon have asked lawmakers not to endorse recommendations in a new congressionally mandated report analyzing how effectively the Department of Energy identifies risk at defense nuclear cleanup sites and executes plans to address risk nationwide. “The report fails at this task by instead focusing primarily on ways to reduce costs rather than reducing risks to public health and safety,” said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in a letter signed late last week. It was addressed to leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittees. The report was prepared by a panel organized by the leader of the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation at the request of DOE. The report said there are inconsistencies among sites in decision-making that are skewing risk-informed prioritization and allocation of increasingly scarce resources for cleanup.
The recommendations in the report, “A Review of the Use of Risk-Informed Management in the Cleanup Program for Former Defense Nuclear Sites,” call into question state regulatory authority, according to the letter. “Recommendations within this report – if implemented – would fundamentally alter and substantially abrogate state authority,” the governors said. The report calls for establishing a standing task force to assist the Department of Energy in setting cleanup priorities, allocating resources, and creating flexibility in milestones, which would exclude states from critical decision-making, the letter said. The report recommends Congress pass legislation removing the option of consent decrees for resolving enforcement of project milestones and creating a dispute settlement body that would make binding decisions, subject to an opportunity for review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
