Oak Ridge’s UCOR Earns 94 Percent of Available Fee for First Half of Fiscal 2020

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – EM recently awarded Oak Ridge cleanup contractor UCOR $10.4 million for its performance from October 2019 through March 2020, amounting to 94 percent of the available fee for the period.

The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) issued its fee determination scorecard for UCOR for the six-month period of fiscal 2020 after completing its evaluation of the contractor. 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.

The contractor received “excellent” ratings for project management and business systems, and regulatory and stakeholder activity; a “good” rating for operations management; and “high confidence” for cost and schedule incentive, according to the scorecard.

UCOR had several significant accomplishments:

• Continued to address the environmental liability of DOE by accelerating cleanup, reducing risks, generating cost savings, and resolving regulatory issues and concerns.
• Provided outstanding support to the Mercury Treatment Facility construction project.
• Completed the conceptual design report for the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment’s Continuous Purge System. Implementing this strategy will improve the safety posture and reduce costs for maintaining the facility.
• Completed upgrades to the Aquatic Ecology Laboratory that provide unique capabilities for researchers to test and mature mercury remediation technologies that will aid mercury cleanup in the years ahead.
• Met all regulatory schedule requirements. UCOR has operated 60 months without a letter of noncompliance from an outside regulatory agency and 99 months without a spill or release reportable to outside agencies other than a routine regulatory report.
• Met or exceeded all DOE subcontracting goals for small business, including small disadvantaged business, women owned, HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zones), service disabled veteran owned, and veteran owned.

OREM noted areas for improvement. UCOR experienced several issues with transportation, including an accident involving an employee and a tractor trailer truck at the East Tennessee Technology Park. There are opportunities for UCOR to improve after a couple items fell during hoisting and riggings activities. There were no injuries in that incident.

View the fee determination letter and the full scorecard here.