CARLSBAD, N.M. – EM’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) recently issued the fiscal year 2015 fee award determination for Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP), and it shows the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) management and operations contractor earned almost 86 percent — or about $11.7 million of more than $13.6 million — of the fee available for the performance period.  

   “Fiscal year 2015 was challenging, and the contractor accomplished many of the milestones that were important for the recovery of WIPP,” CBFO Manager Todd Shrader said. “The contractor also had several strong performance areas like improvements to the WIPP underground, plant availability, community commitments, exceeding all annual small business subcontracting goals, environmental and regulatory compliance, and nuclear safety culture improvements. However, we also noted a few areas that could have been improved, like the schedule for the ventilation systems and the quality of subcontracting data packages.”  

   WIPP employees continue to make progress toward the goal of resuming waste emplacement by the end of 2016. Key remaining milestones include approval of the new documented safety analysis, targeted for later this month; eight weeks of cold operations; and contractor and DOE operational readiness reviews. 

   NWP President and Project Manager Phil Breidenbach said the contractor improved from fiscal year 2014 in every functional area for which DOE grades the company.

   “DOE recognized us for site recovery activities. They further highlighted achievements, including maintaining high plant availability, which allowed for significant recovery progress; substantial progress in catch-up bolting and underground restoration; improving work planning and controls; a strong environmental and regulatory compliance program; significant progress on improving safety programs, reflecting a maturing nuclear safety culture; maintaining a very good environmental management system; and our work with local communities. I am very optimistic that we will continue to see gains in a number of performance areas in FY16,” Breidenbach said.  

   CBFO gave NWP an overall rating of “good” in the four evaluated areas of the subjective award fee determination, which accounts for 25 percent of the overall available fee. Areas considered under the subjective portion include mission performance, management performance, environmental safety and health performance, and cost control.

   The objective performance-based incentives (PBIs) account for 75 percent of the overall available fee. Areas evaluated under the PBIs include underground ventilation systems; documented safety analysis development; transuranic waste certification; reducing preventive and corrective maintenance backlogs; improvements to the WIPP site; and developing a performance measurement baseline for the WIPP Recovery Plan. 

   To view a copy of the fee determination scorecard, click here.