Bechtel Hanford, Inc. Rated Outstanding Again

The performance rating for the period is BHI's ninth consecutive performance fee rating of outstanding. The company will receive 92.8 percent of the available performance fee.

In his letter transmitting the latest performance appraisal to BHI, RL Manager John Wagoner noted that "BHI has continued to plan, manage, integrate, and execute a full range of activities to clean up groundwater, contaminated soils, and nuclear facilities on the Hanford Site in an outstanding manner." Wagoner added that "BHI maintains their focus on progress using a sophisticated project management approach and is performing cleanup goals as quickly and cost efficiently as possible while always considering risks and benefits to workers, the public, and the environment."

Linda Bauer, DOE's Assistant Manager for Environmental Restoration, said, "This consistent outstanding performance by BHI is a testament to the can-do attitude the contractor brought to the Hanford cleanup mission. I expect this type of performance to continue."

Among the highlights of the performance period were:
- Completing the deactivation of N Reactor, the safe disposal of more than 600,000 tons of contaminated materials from sites bordering the Columbia River, and finishing the interim safe storage of C Reactor.

- BHI responded quickly and decisively to DOE's request for assistance in establishing Hanford's Groundwater/Vadose Zone Integration Project and provided outstanding assistance to DOE by integrating the critically important work of the project with Hanford's other prime contractors, the national laboratories, regulators, stakeholders, and Tribal Nations.
- BHI's performance in groundwater management was outstanding with over an 85% availability for pump and treat operations and the project met or exceeded all Tri-Party Agreement milestones.

- The C Reactor Interim Safe Storage (ISS) greatly diminished the size of the C Reactor, created a safe storage enclosure, reduced inspections of the Reactor, and virtually eliminated the need for structural repairs, resulting in annual savings of $185,000.

- Electric power was turned off to N reactor in July representing the culmination of a complex, difficult, and highly visible and challenging task that also marked the completion of deactivation of all of Hanford's production reactors.

While BHI had outstanding overall performance in industrial safety and radiological controls, they were assessed $27,125 in fee penalties due to three industrial-type accidents and two radiological control incidents. However, BHI received an extra fee award of $18,962 in recognition of outstanding performance in the Groundwater and Vadose Zone Integration project.