The contractor building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, locked in a dispute with the federal government over the project, argued the Energy Department’s failure to negotiate its contract “in good faith” is costing the company money.
On June 1, the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals denied CB&I AREVA MOX Services’ appeal of a previously dismissed claim that the company should receive an additional $702,048 in award fee for fiscal 2013.
The ruling said the contractor believes it is entitled to that additional amount because the contract language “mandates this result” and because “the agency did not negotiate the matter in good faith.” Previous board filings showed a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) contracting officer denied CB&I AREVA’s claims for a higher award fee, prompting the contractor’s appeal.
Still, the board ruled that, “MOX Services has not cited any valid ground for reconsideration.”
Both the Trump administration and the Barack Obama administration proposed terminating MOX, despite direction to the contrary from Congress.
An industry source has suggested that Obama administration carryovers within NNSA’s senior leadership are largely responsible for the Trump administration’s proposal to terminate the project.
In February NNSA released its fiscal 2016 evaluation, in which it gave CB&I AREVA only 8.9 percent of its possible award fee for that budget year due to “unsatisfactory” performance. The following month the contractor sent the NNSA a letter arguing that the agency is intentionally trying to terminate the project by obstructing the company’s work.