AIKEN, S.C. - The Savannah River Site (SRS) liquid waste contractor recently earned an “excellent" rating and $14,465,000 - or 96 percent - of the available award fee for the period Oct. 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017, according to a recently released scorecard.
Savannah River Remediation (SRR) accomplishments during this period included:
* Management of the unanticipated melter failure;
* Use of corporate reachback resources and internal reviews to focus on early and permanent resolution of issues;
* Full execution of a major contract modification to extend the contract by 6 months due to delays in DOE award of liquid waste follow-on contract; and
* Accelerated execution of the Salt Waste Processing Facility tie-in outage, which was achieved as a result of the melter failure.
This performance period would have marked the end of SRR’s contract but the contact was extended to Dec. 31, 2017 to accommodate DOE’s competitive procurement process for a new SRS liquid waste services contract. This allowed the Department’s selection, award and transition to the new contract to occur without interruptions of ongoing services.
DOE-Savannah River Associate Deputy Manager Thomas Johnson said overall cost, schedule and technical performance requirements of the contract were achieved during the evaluation period.
“In addition to other milestones SRR completed this year, the Saltstone Disposal Unit 6 (SDU 6) was a huge success," said Johnson.
Workers completed that facility 16 months ahead of schedule and more than $25 million under budget.
Johnson said the contractor has taken positive steps to improve overall conduct of operations, which was noted as requiring attention in the last award period.
SRR President and Project Manager Tom Foster said the award reflects the progress made in the liquid waste program and the hard work of employees.
“We were faced with a number of unusual challenges this year - liquid waste system outage, new melter being installed, repairing the 3H evaporator, etc. - and we were able to safely overcome those challenges with outstanding performance," said Foster.
DOE-Savannah River noted areas needing improvements:
* an increase in the number of technical safety requirements violations; and
* adequately identifying and analyzing potential issues with the implementation of a glycolic acid flowsheet.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
