WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – EM announced that the contractor at its West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) cleanup earned $250,000, or nearly 85 percent of the available fee award of $295,495 for the six-month period ending Feb. 29 this year.

   In its award fee determination scorecard, EM rated CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley’s (CHBWV) safety, health, and quality management as “excellent,” and gave a “very good” rating for the company’s business and project management and environmental and regulatory strategy. EM noted that the contractor met the majority of the performance goals and objectives for the period. 

   Each year EM releases information relating to contractor fee payments — earned by completing the work called for in the contracts — to further transparency in its cleanup program.

   Once the site of the first and only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the U.S., WVDP is now an environmental cleanup and waste management project, located about 35 miles south of Buffalo. The cleanup is conducted by EM in cooperation with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

   According to EM’s final performance evaluation for CHBWV:

   With more than 1.85 million safe work hours, the contractor continued its commitment to achieving safety excellence. CHBWV received DOE’s Voluntary Protection Program Star of Excellence, conducted excellent coordination with off-site emergency responders, implemented an excellent radiological controls program, and continued efforts to enhance the emergency management program. 

   CHBWV submitted quality and timely contract deliverables, and displayed a continuing commitment to improve cybersecurity. The contractor achieved 93 percent of its fiscal year 2015 strategic sourcing goal — a savings in procurements valued at $295,000 through use of what’s known as an e-sourcing procurement tool. All EM sites set a goal for this initiative every year based on procurements to be performed using the tool.

   The contractor’s partnering efforts were “excellent,” its problem solving and work planning and control were “very good,” and its risk management was “good.”

   Factors that led to the “very good” environmental and regulatory strategy rating included CHBWV’s regulatory work activities relative to project implementation, good coordination with DOE staff, and “very strong” liaison work with regulators and stakeholders.

   View the scorecard here.