$12M incentive pay; Hanford contractor cleans up

The Hanford tank farm contractor has been awarded almost $12 million in incentive pay from the Department of Energy for its work in the past fiscal year.

Washington River Protection Solutions, which manages the tank farms at the Hanford nuclear reservation, was eligible to receive almost $13.4 million for the year ending Sept. 30, received 89 percent of that for worked rated overall as “very good.”

Another contractor, Wastren Advantage Inc., has been awarded $184,000 for its work analyzing some of Hanford’s worst radioactive waste.

The percentage awarded to Washington River Protection Solutions is up significantly from the 77 percent received for the previous year.

Its lowest score this year was for the contractors actions related to implementing an improved chemical vapor protection program, which was rated as “good.,” a rating that corresponds with 51 to 75 percent success.

Workers are wearing supplied air respirators for most work within the tank farms to protect against inhalation of chemical vapors, while a comprehensive program is implemented to protect workers. Some workers and their families say breathing in the vapors has caused serious and even fatal respiratory and neurological illnesses.

Washington River Protection Solutions needs to ensure that planned actions to control vapors are “effectively managed to completion,” DOE said.

The contractor received scores of “very good” for managing tanks, conduct of operations, quality assurance, and cost and management. The rating corresponds to 76 to 90 percent success.

The top score of “excellent” was awarded for areas including nuclear safety, implementation of safety programs, and supporting the planned start-up in 2022 of the Hanford vitrification plant to treat some of the waste held in underground tanks. Some 56 million gallons of waste is left from the past production of plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

The contractor exceeded DOE’s goals for safety performance, according to DOE. It also freed up valuable space in double-shell tanks by evaporating some of the liquid waste. Waste from 149 leak-prone single-shell tanks is being transferred to 27 newer double-shell tanks.

Areas for improvement, in addition to implementing vapor controls, include ensuring a high level of operation performance across all facilities and management of the design, cost and schedule for a new pretreatment facility to prepare low-activity radioactive waste to be sent to the vitrification plant.

Wastren Advantage Inc. received 96 percent of the almost $192,000 possible for its laboratory analysis and testing services at the Hanford 222-S Laboratory for the previous fiscal year.

It was an improvement from 2016, when it received 88 percent of the pay available.

Wastren Advantage accepts high level radioactive waste samples from Hanford tanks for analysis.

DOE praised its contractor for having workers actively participating in identification and resolution of health and safety concerns without fear of retaliation.

The contractor delivered high quality data on time and had no serious findings in nine external audits and more than 130 internal assessments, DOE said.

However, it needs to improve relationships with Washington River Protection Solutions, DOE said.

DOE also had safety concerns.

There were no worker exposure events that significantly impacted health and safety at the lab in fiscal 2017, DOE said. But there were two “concerning” incidents in which workers did not comply with radiological procedures developed for specific tasks, and one incident of radon skin contamination, DOE said.

This story was originally published January 20, 2018 at 6:46 PM with the headline "$12M incentive pay; Hanford contractor cleans up."