EM’s legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) earned more than $8.6 million.
Office of Environmental Management
January 28, 2020
minute read time
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – EM’s legacy cleanup contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) earned more than $8.6 million, or about 84 percent of the fee available during the performance evaluation period of fiscal 2019, according to a recently released scorecard.
“The contractor successfully made significant progress in key legacy cleanup and waste management campaigns, including operating the chromium interim measure and shipping waste off-site,” said Doug Hintze, manager of the EM Los Alamos Field Office and the fee determining official.
EM releases information relating to contractor fee payments — earned by completing the work called for in their contracts — to further transparency in its cleanup program.
Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos’ (N3B) performance from Oct. 1, 2018 through Sept. 30, 2019 was evaluated for quality, schedule, cost control, regulatory compliance, and management.
According to the evaluation, the contractor realized two significant accomplishments during the period — successfully operating the chromium plume interim measure and regularly shipping transuranic (TRU) waste from Technical Area 54’s (TA-54) Area G to EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
The hexavalent chromium interim measure involves pumping and injecting treated water to control the advancement of the contaminant plume and to shrink its footprint. The plume is located in the groundwater beneath Sandia and Mortandad canyons at LANL.
TA-54 is LANL's waste management area. Area G is a site within TA-54 where LANL’s TRU and low-level waste is stored, characterized, remediated, and shipped off-site.
Other N3B accomplishments that were noted included:
- Shipping 250 cubic meters of mixed and low level waste;
- Establishing a strong stakeholder engagement program;
- Preparing to demolish Building 257 at Technical Area 21;
- Improving procurement processes.
The scorecard also noted areas for improvement, including:
- Response time in repairing safety systems after failures;
- Completing budgeted work scope;
- Early planning and kickoff of field operations.
View the N3B scorecard here.