Oak Ridge's UCOR Earns 98% of Fee for 7 Months of 2021

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – EM recently awarded Oak Ridge cleanup contractor UCOR $24.7 million for its performance from April 2021 through October 2021, amounting to 98% of the available fee for the evaluation period.

The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) issued its fee determination scorecard for UCOR for the seven-month period 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, quality and safety culture, and regulatory and stakeholder activity; a “good” rating for operations management; and “high confidence” for cost and schedule incentive, according to the scorecard.

Following are significant accomplishments by UCOR during the evaluation period:

• Projected to underrun its contract by more than $68 million by completing work ahead of schedule and under budget.
• Advanced cleanup on 27 excess contaminated facilities at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex, which house DOE's largest inventory of high-priority excess facilities, and completed actions required to close the East Tennessee Technology Park.
• Effectively addressed supply chain challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, minimizing cost and schedule impacts.
• Continued implementing effective COVID-19 controls with no workplace transmission cases since the start of the pandemic.
• Awarded about 85% of its subcontracts to small businesses in fiscal 2021, exceeding its goal of 65%.

While UCOR continues to be responsive to incidents and make improvements in work planning and control, OREM noted improvements needed for respirator usage and transportation.

View the scorecard here.