CARLSBAD, N.M. – The EM Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) prime contractor earned nearly $10.8 million, or 86 percent, of the available award fee for fiscal 2018, according to a recently released scorecard from EM’s Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO).
CBFO Manager Todd Shrader said he considered Nuclear Waste Partnership’s (NWP) performance in five areas of the fiscal 2018 performance evaluation measurement plan in determining the fee award.
“Nuclear Waste Partnership continues its strong performance in key contract areas, including mission performance and cost control,” Shrader said. “We are also very pleased with NWP’s FY18 achievements in areas such as infrastructure projects, ground control, mining, and waste emplacement.”
NWP's subjective ratings in those contract areas include:
- “very good” for mission performance
- “very good” for regulatory compliance
- “very good” for management performance
- “good” for safety and health performance
- “excellent” for cost control
NWP performed strongly in waste characterization activities, improved transuranic waste emplacement processes that resulted in an increase in weekly shipments from four to 10, exceeded community commitments, and achieved effective cost savings and cost avoidance. The contractor also surpassed its small business goals, including those for disadvantaged- and woman-owned businesses.
Areas for improvement included concerns with NWP’s industrial hygiene program, which led to potential heat stress events that required medical care for workers. The scorecard also noted inadequate planning for air quality improvements in the WIPP underground and an increasing maintenance backlog.
NWP earned the majority of its fee — more than $8 million — for objective criteria, or performance based incentives, such as infrastructure projects, ground control, mining, and remote-handled waste planning; Panel 8 mining; improving work conditions in radiological areas, transuranic waste emplacement.
View NWP’s scorecard for its fiscal 2018 fee here.