EM’s Office of River Protection contractor for the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI), has earned $5.54 million, or 70.4% of the available award fee of $7.87 million for the performance evaluation period.
Office of Environmental Management
March 17, 2021
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RICHLAND, Wash. – EM’s Office of River Protection contractor for the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI), has earned $5.54 million, or 70.4% of the available award fee of $7.87 million for the performance evaluation period of calendar year 2020.
EM releases information relating to contractor fee payments — earned by completing work called for in the contracts — to further transparency in its cleanup program.
BNI’s performance was evaluated against six criteria incentives. Of the six criteria, BNI received one “excellent,” one “very good,” and four “good” ratings. The overall rating was “good.”
BNI’s achievements included completing the turnover of all systems in the WTP Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility and Effluent Management Facility (EMF) from construction to startup testing prior to a Dec. 31, 2020 milestone for completing the work in the Hanford Consent Decree. Those facilities will support the site’s Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) program to begin treating radioactive waste from large underground tanks. Startup testing is the phase between construction and commissioning. Commissioning is the phase between startup testing and facility operations.
The work at WTP to complete construction of all facilities required for DFLAW operations was done safely and on time despite the unprecedented challenges presented by reduced operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, and BNI ensured effective safety controls were in place that protected the health and safety of the workforce.
Additional examples of BNI achievements in 2020 include approval of chemical safety management and nuclear material maintenance programs, as well as updates to the plant’s commissioning plan. BNI also completed the Analytical Laboratory readiness-to-operate performance milestone and validated implementation of safety management programs through an executive safety review board. That laboratory, which is part of WTP, is where technicians and chemists will analyze approximately 3,000 samples of tank waste each year to support DFLAW operations.
Areas for improvement for BNI include implementing corrective actions, resolving issues to mitigate single-point failures, and maturing the plant operations culture.
View the 2020 scorecard for BNI here.
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