Effective Saturday Feb. 4, Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors took over operation of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.
Salado Isolation Mining Contractors (SIMCO), which also includes New Mexico-based subcontractor Los Alamos Technical Associates, said in a Friday evening press release it was about to officially take over as prime contractor from Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership.
The new contractor got the green light at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) after DOE accepted the company’s ‘Declaration of Readiness’ for operations, which ends the transition period that began in November.
This included “onboarding” 1,100 employees, most of them coming from the incumbent, as well as doing more than 110 plant inspections and reviews, the Bechtel affiliate said.
“We appreciated the incumbent workforce and local communities’ support and collaboration that ensured a smooth contract transition,” said DOE’s acting manager for its Carlsbad Field Office Mark Bollinger.
“I’m looking forward to working alongside everyone and continuing safe and efficient operations at WIPP to support the DOE’s national cleanup mission,” SIMCO’s president and program manager at WIPP, Ken Harrawood, said in the release.
In a message to WIPP employees, viewed by Exchange Monitor, Harrawood also thanked the staff for “your commitment to the mission and focus helped maintain safe and uninterrupted plant operations throughout the transition.”
A veteran of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear program, Harrawood has worked in the nuclear and hazardous waste industries for over 36 years, according to his WIPP bio. Before Carlsbad, he managed the Bechtel-led Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in Colorado— a venture charged with destroying chemical weapons including sulfur mustard, also known as mustard gas. Harrawood has also worked at DOE weapons complex sites such as the Idaho National Laboratory, the Hanford Site in Washington state and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
In July 2022, Salado won the $3 billion DOE contract to run the nation’s only deep underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant management award was upheld by the Government Accountability Office in November following protests filed by teams led by Westinghouse and Huntington Ingalls Industries.
Nuclear Waste Partnership is an Amentum-BWX Technologies team, with Orano as a subcontractor, has held the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) prime contract since October 2012, under a deal valued at $2.7 billion.
While the Amentum-led group took home about two-thirds of its subjective fee in its past couple of DOE scorecards, it was also in charge of WIPP at the time of the February 2014 underground radiation leak from a ruptured drum. The aftermath of the accident would idle the disposal site for about three years.
Like other DOE sites, WIPP had to deal with absentee issues connected with the COVID-19 pandemic. Staffing and oversight of major construction projects have been an ongoing concern at WIPP, the Government Accountability Office said in March 2022.
By 2025 or so, work crews should complete construction on the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System, which should triple the rate of underground airflow in the salt mine.
Salado is also taking over WIPP at a time when the New Mexico Environment Department is receiving comments on a 10-year permit renewal for the facility. As part of the process, the state is looking for greater say-so in the future of the disposal site. The state agency has expressed skepticism about keeping WIPP open until the 2080s. The mayor of Carlsbad, however, has signaled support for keeping the major local employer running a long time.