URS CH2M Oak Ridge landed an award of nearly $3.6 million for the six months ended March 31, good for 94 percent of the total available to the prime cleanup contractor for the Energy Department’s former uranium enrichment facilities near Oak Ridge, Tenn., according to the company’s latest award fee determination scorecard from DOE.
In the six months ended this spring, the company, known as UCOR, began demolition of the K-27 uranium-enrichment facility – the last of the five gaseous diffusion plants at the site now known as the East Tennessee Technology Park. That effort is proceeding at a rate that will support the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management’s Vision 2016 objective to have the facility substantially demolished by the end of December, according to the scorecard, which was dated July 8.
The contractor got good marks from DOE, although the agency’s Oak Ridge field office did note in the score that UCOR “experienced multiple electrical safety issues during this performance period and multiple deficiencies were noted in the surveillance and inspection rigor for operations outside of the major deactivation and demolition efforts.”
For example, walk downs of the 6556 revealed some rainwater had gotten into a barrel of solid waste that was not sealed properly. The water had to be removed and treated on site, a DOE spokesperson said in a Thursday email. Likewise, at the the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment, workers discovered a five-gallon container of low-level solid waste with a partially torn lid.
The DOE spokesperson said neither incident resulted in a spread of contamination.
Also in the six-month period, “inadequate protection” of two workers cutting and draining ducts in the K-631 building “could have resulted in exposure to highly toxic chemicals,” according to the scorecard.
DOE said the chemical in question was chlorine trifluoride. Neither worker was exposed to the chemical, as UCOR halted the job to put additional safety precautions in place. The workers subsequently finished their duct cutting and draining.
UCOR’s nine-year cleanup conract runs through July 31 and could be worth up to $2.43 billion, if DOE exercises a four-year option that is coming up.
Editor’s Note: this story was changed to include the correct locations, and descriptions, of certain improperly sealed waste containers. 07/25/16, 9:47 a.m.