WEST VALLEY, N.Y. - EM’s cleanup contactor at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) for the Aug. 30, 2017-Feb. 28, 2018 performance period, according to a recently released scorecard.
EM noted that CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) met the majority of performance goals and objectives for the period. The contractor received an “excellent" rating for safety, health, and quality management; “very good" for both business administration and project management; and “good" for environmental and regulatory strategy.
“CHBWV continues to have a very successful year," EM WVDP Site Director Bryan Bower said. “During this last rating period, CHBWV safely completed the removal, packaging, and shipment of four in-cell Vitrification Facility coolers. This particular work evolution was the highest remaining hazard associated with this project, and was a critical path for continuing on with the demolition of this facility."
Bower noted that CHBWV continues to be ahead of schedule for safely completing a legacy waste milestone.
“Our workforce continues to deactivate the Main Plant Process Building’s most difficult areas in a safe, deliberate, and compliant manner," Bower said. “This latest award fee reflects CHBWV’s ongoing efforts to complete contract milestones in a safe, effective, and responsive manner."
Each year EM releases information relating to contractor fee payments - earned by completing the work called for in the contracts - to further transparency in its cleanup program.
According to EM’s performance evaluation for CHBWV:
The safety, health, and quality management rating reflects CHBWV’s lower rates of work-related injury and illness. The contractor’s quality assurance personnel paid excellent attention to detail inspecting containers used to transport Vitrification Facility demolition debris. Employees also made progress in safeguards and security training, responsiveness, communication, and document production. An area that needs improvement is conduct of operations for maintenance of spill response materials.
In the project management area, CHBWC planned well for the initial demolition of the Vitrification Facility and shipments of demolition debris and legacy waste. The contractor’s good planning and use of mockups benefit the Main Plant Process Building deactivation activities.
In the environmental and regulatory compliance section, CHBWV submitted well-organized, good-quality routine reports on time. The contractor provided all necessary backup data to make DOE’s review efficient. However, the scorecard noted two regulatory compliance issues.
Once the site of the first and only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the U.S., WVDP is now an environmental cleanup and waste management project located about 35 miles south of Buffalo. The cleanup is conducted by EM in cooperation with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
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Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
