Nuclear wasteFire shuts down nuclear repository, but DOE still recognizes operator for “excellent” performance
Five days after an underground truck fire closed the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the Energy Department (DOE) awarded Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP), the operating contractor of the nuclear repository, $1.9 million for “excellent” performance during the past year.Shortly after the truck fire, WIPP was shut down because of radiation leak, Still, “No federal or contractor official has lost their job, been transferred, been moved off the WIPP contract or otherwise held accountable. No leadership has changed at the federal level. No company has lost a contract,” noted an industry observer.
Five days after an underground truck fire closed the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the Energy Department (DOE) awarded Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP), the operating contractor of the nuclear repository, $1.9 million for “excellent” performance during the past year. Subsequent investigations of the fire and a later incident involving radiation leak have cited a history of poor attention to safety protocols. One investigation showed that operators allowed diesel fuel engine oil to build up on the truck that caught fire. Yet, no individual or entity has been held accountable for the recent incidents at WIPP.
“No federal or contractor official has lost their job, been transferred, been moved off the WIPP contract or otherwise held accountable. No leadership has changed at the federal level. No company has lost a contract,” wrote Martin Schneider, chief executive of Exchange Monitor Publications, in an editorial in Weapons Complex Monitor. NWP has however assigned Bob McQuinn to head the recovery and cleanup effort.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that last month, DOE levied the only financial penalty against NWP since the February truck fire and radiation leak: a $2 million, or 25 percent, reduction in the nearly $8.2 million fee available in fiscal 2014, as a result of the fire. NWP is able to earn back 50 percent of that amount for good performance or corrective actions. “They’ve always gotten their full bonus,” said John Heaton, head of the Carlsbad mayor’sNuclear Task Force. “The main focus of that bonus was getting waste into the facility and, in my opinion, there was very little emphasis on safety or training that will keep WIPP open 30 or 50 years.”
The DOE compensates NWP through two channels: a performance-based incentive determined by meeting set goals; and an award fee based on an evaluation of NWP’s performance. For fiscal 2013, DOE awarded NWP a $5.9 million-performance-based incentive in addition to the $1.9 million award fee issued in February for “excellent” performance. The Journal notes that these payments represent potential earnings above what DOE reimburses NWP for the annual cost of operating WIPP, budgeted at $142 million for fiscal 2013 and $158 million for fiscal 2014. Across the nuclear weapons complex, “it’s become almost a ritual that the contractor gets its bonus no matter what,” said Edwin Lyman, senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists’ global security program. “It became a standard accessory with the contract and totally nullified the idea of the performance bonus. This has been criticized for years and years. There is so little competition for management of these sites.”
NWP, which has operated WIPP since 2012, is contracted to run the facility through 2017, with a five-year option for renewal. “We should not be paying them for work they haven’t done,” said Don Hancock, a longtime WIPP observer with the Southwest Research and Information Center. “Their contract is to certify the characterization of waste elsewhere (at generator sites) and have it disposed of safely at WIPP and they failed in that.”
Heaton suggests that NWP’s awards and incentives should be linked more directly to safety and maintenance protocol. “In the next 50 to 100 years, I doubt there will be another repository in the U.S.,” he said. “This is the only show in town. And to not maintain it in pristine condition and keep it to a high standard doesn’t make any sense.”
DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, which pays NWP on behalf of the department, is not considering revision or termination of the contract “pending the results of the radiological release investigation,” said spokesman Tim Runyon. WIPP is expected to be closed until 2016, as authorities complete their investigation of the truck fire and radiation leak.
NWP is set to make “dramatic” changes to its safety culture. “We didn’t perform and we’re going to get criticized,” McQuinn said. “I’m spending a lot of time helping my team understand that we have to change and the change will be dramatic.”
