CARLSBAD, N.M. - The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) management and operations contractor earned more than $10.7 million, or 90 percent, of the available fee for fiscal 2017, according to a recently released fee scorecard from EM’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO).
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.
During the evaluation period, Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP), successfully restarted WIPP waste emplacement operations and transuranic waste shipments to the site from EM generator sites. NWP also increased the amount of transuranic waste emplaced in WIPP and boosted transportation shipping rates.
The award fee determination was based on a subjective rating in the key contract areas of mission performance; regulatory compliance; management performance; safety and health performance; and cost control. NWP earned a score of “excellent" in mission performance and “very good" in the others.
NWP’s performance based incentive fees were based on objective criteria, include maintaining ground control (bolting in mine) in core areas of the underground; waste emplacement; completing activities to resume mining operations in Panel 8; and generator site technical reviews and acceptable knowledge reviews to verify that generator sites were ready to resume shipping and verify transuranic waste inventories were acceptable for disposal at WIPP.
The fee determination scorecard noted areas for improvement. There were documented issues with contract-required monitoring of en-route shipments and inadequate staffing of central monitoring room operators to continuously perform this responsibility. The scorecard also noted that CBFO oversight personnel documented four technical safety report violations.
Read NWP’s fee determination scorecard.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
