The venture that manages the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico will have until Dec. 21 to reply to a lawsuit brought last month by the construction contractor it fired this summer after slower-than-anticipated progress on a major new underground ventilation system.
The motion for an extension, filed by Nuclear Waste Management’s attorney, Leah Stevens-Block, was granted Nov. 20 in the U.S. District Court for New Mexico, according to court filings.
Critical Applications Alliance is jointly owned by two Texas-based businesses, Christensen Building Group and Kilgore Industries. It filed a $32-million breach-of-contract suit Oct. 27 in the federal court against Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership, the DOE’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).
In late August, Nuclear Waste Partnership terminated the $135-million agreement to have Critical Applications Alliance construct what is known as the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System, which DOE deems crucial to returning transuranic waste disposal operations to pre-2014 levels at WIPP. A February 2014 underground radiation leak damaged the salt mine and compromised the ventilation system, which suspended waste disposal there for about three years.
The plaintiff in the case claims it inherited a badly designed ventilation system when it was hired as the construction contractor in the fall of 2018. Critical Applications Alliance also asserts that Nuclear Waste Partnership is inexperienced in overseeing such big projects. Those factors, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to schedule delays and cost escalation on the ventilation project.
After terminating the Critical Applications contract, Nuclear Waste Partnership retained Omaha-based Kiewit, a major North American construction company, to keep the project going while a new provider is selected.
Preliminary motions in the litigation are being heard by U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory Wormuth.
