Hanford contractor awarded $7.8 million in annual incentive pay as contract is expiring

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. has been awarded nearly 79 percent of the incentive pay possible for its work at the Hanford nuclear reservation in fiscal 2019.

The Department of Energy contractor at the Hanford site was awarded $7.8 million by the Department of Energy out of $9.9 million possible.

For the previous fiscal year, the environmental cleanup contractor received 80 percent of available fee.

“(Fiscal 2019) held significant challenges for us, but we also saw tremendous success and made great progress for the Hanford site mission on behalf of the Department of Energy and the American taxpayer,” said Ty Blackford, president of CH2M at Hanford.

DOE considered CH2M’s success in completing specific scopes of work, for which CH2M was awarded $6.2 million, about $1.2 million less than the $7.4 million available.

CH2M also earned $1.6 million out of $2.5 million available based on DOE’s overall subjective assessment of its work.

DOE said in a scorecard that CH2M need to improve its control of contamination in the 324 Building, which sits over a highly radioactive spill a mile north of Richland and near the Columbia River.

Work was paused on preparing to dig up the spill from beneath the building in November after an eighth incident in 2019 in which a worker’s clothing or skin was contaminated with radioactive waste.

DOE said then that while individually the contamination levels had been low, the number of incidents showed a negative trend in contamination control that actions to date had been inadequate to address.

DOE also said that CH2M needed to improve its assessment of nonradioactive chemical exposure, but provided no details.

CH2M successes

Overall, CH2M met or exceeded the majority of performance goals and objectives for fiscal 2019, which ended in September, DOE said on the scorecard.

It accomplished a number of DOE’s key goals for environmental cleanup of the nuclear reservation, DOE said.

The Hanford site was left contaminated with radioactive and hazardous chemical waste from the past production of plutonium during World War II and the Cold War for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

CH2M is responsible for cleanup of central Hanford, with the exception of underground tanks holding 56 million gallons of radioactive waste, plus some remaining cleanup near the Columbia River, cleanup of contaminated groundwater and operation of a central Hanford lined landfill for hazardous chemical and low-level radioactive waste.

DOE said its contractor’s accomplishments in fiscal 2019 included:

▪ CH2M completed the transfer of radioactive sludge stored in an underwater pool near the Columbia River to dry storage three months ahead of the most recently negotiated regulatory deadline.

The project had been underway for decades, Blackford said.

▪ CH2M stabilized a tunnel near the PUREX plant that was at risk of collapse. The tunnel stored railcars loaded with obsolete equipment that was contaminated with highly radioactive waste.

The work eliminated a major risk at Hanford, Blackford said.

▪ Significant progress was made to demolish Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant, where work had been halted because of an earlier airborne spread of radioactive particles, including plutonium.

Demolition of the plant down to its foundation was completed in February of the current fiscal year. It was another project that had stretched over two decades because of the extensive work needed to clean out the highly contaminated plant and prepare it for tear down.

▪ CH2M treated more than 2.4 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater, removing nearly 90 tons of contaminants. It also worked on the development of a computer tool to evaluate the cumulative impacts of multiple radiological and chemical contaminant releases into the groundwater.

The incentive pay, or fee, award comes as CH2M is finishing up its Hanford contract.

Contract status

In December DOE awarded a new environmental cleanup contract worth up to $10 billion over a decade, as CH2M’s contract was expiring.

However, the contract awarded to Central Plateau Cleanup Co., owned by Amentum (formerly Aecom), along with Fluor Federal Services and Atkins Nuclear Secured, has been challenged by a bidding team led by Project W. Restoration, a team that includes Bechtel as the lead owner.

The Government Accountability Office has until June 17 to rule on the appeal, called a protest.

CH2M is on the 12th year of a 10 year contract, after receiving extensions until as long as September 2020 to give DOE time to award a new contract and have the winning contract up and running after a 60 day transition period.

CH2M employs about 1,700 people.

This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.