UCOR workers take down the final portion of Building K-27, achieving Vision 2016, a DOE goal to remove all of the former uranium enrichment buildings at the East Tennessee Technology Park by the end of 2016. K-27 was the fifth and final gaseous diffusion building to be demolished at the site. Successful demolitions of the four other buildings were completed from 2006 to 2015. (U.S. Department of Energy photo)
UCOR, the U.S. Department of Energy’s cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, received about $3.4 million for its performance from April through September 2016, or 94 percent of the total award fee available, federal officials said.
The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM, recently issued the six-month fee determination scorecard for UCOR, or URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC, after completing its evaluation.
“Contractor award fee evaluations determine what will be paid based on performance against stated objectives in accordance with annual award fee plans,” the DOE Office of Environmental Management, or EM, said in the EM Update electronic newsletter on December 29. “EM releases information relating to contractor fee payments to further transparency.”
According to UCOR’s scorecard, the company received an overall rating of “very good” for project management and “high confidence” for cost and schedule based on cost and schedule indexes, the newsletter said.
“UCOR has continued to execute the scope under the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) contract very well,” the scorecard said.
In August, UCOR employees finished tearing down Building K-27. The project marked one of the most significant accomplishments in the Oak Ridge EM program’s history. After a decade of demolition, the site became the world’s first to remove all of its uranium enrichment processing buildings. The contractor completed that demolition, debris removal, and other activities ahead of schedule and under cost.
“The contractor continues to provide outstanding support to ongoing reindustrialization efforts at ETTP,” EM Update said. “UCOR helped OREM perform work supporting the transfer of more than 200 acres to the Community Reuse Organization of Tennessee for reuse. UCOR ‘exceeded expectations’ supporting interfaces with stakeholders in ETTP historic preservation efforts.”
The newsletter said cost reduction and improved operational efficiency resulted from UCOR’s negotiations for regulatory approvals, and the contractor was “exemplary” in managing environmental permits, compliance monitoring, and required reports.
At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, UCOR extended the life of a liquid waste treatment system critical to the laboratory’s ongoing missions. The contractor reduced risk at ORNL and Y-12 National Security Complex excess contaminated facilities. UCOR advanced the high-priority Mercury Treatment Facility construction project, integral to Y-12 cleanup, the newsletter said.
UCOR’s recycling initiatives reduced disposal volumes and yielded cost savings. The contractor diverted more than 1,500 cubic yards of scrap metal from a landfill for beneficial use and received approval to recycle about 10,000 linear feet of electrical cable in Building K-731, the EM Update said.
UCOR has worked more than 7.5 million hours without a lost-time injury. In fiscal year 2016, the company made 11,349 waste shipments to onsite landfills without a transportation accident, the newsletter said.
While OREM noted UCOR’s significant accomplishments, the office also pointed to opportunities for improvement. The office identified several issues with UCOR’s work execution involving hoisting and rigging, implementation of transportation requirements, and well drilling activities in a solid waste storage area.
The contractor lacked proper work planning on multiple occasions, including procedure omissions for remote-handled transuranic cask pickup and inadequate inspection criteria for a design feature associated with storage wells, the newsletter said.
View the scorecard here.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
Do you appreciate this story or our work in general? If so, please consider a monthly subscription to Oak Ridge Today. See our Subscribe page here. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.
Copyright 2016 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
