September 18, 2014

Follow-Up on the Management of the Plutonium Finishing Plant Project

The Department of Energy's Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP), located at the Hanford Site in Washington State, became a highly contaminated nuclear facility while processing plutonium for the nation's nuclear arsenal for approximately 40 years. In 2008, the Department awarded CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) a contract to decontaminate and demolish PFP. Completion of work on PFP is the Richland Operations Office's (Richland) top priority. The PFP work scope requires a well-trained workforce to decontaminate radioactive and chemical residues from gloveboxes, tanks and process piping prior to removal in preparation for future demolition of the facility. Entries to contaminated spaces are performed in accordance with "work packages" that identify the scope and hazards associated with the work and define the methods and equipment to be used.

CHPRC's initial baseline estimate to remediate PFP was $581 million with an expected completion date of September 2013. Due to unforeseen situations with changes in the facility condition, workforce restructuring, permitting issues and other challenges, the performance baseline estimates were revised to $753 million, with a completion date of September 2014. We initiated this audit to determine whether the Department had effectively managed the PFP project.

The Department encountered problems with CHPRC's ability to plan, manage and execute work; factors which contributed to both cost and schedule increases. Notably as of March 2014, the PFP project was expected to be completed in September 2016, at a cost of $932 million; 2 years behind and $179 million over CHPRC's revised performance baseline.

Richland management recognized that it needs to take additional steps to improve the manner in which this important work is carried out and stated that they had taken key steps to improve safety and productivity. However, we concluded that more needs to be done to improve Richland's administration of the CHPRC contract and made four recommendations.  Management agreed with our recommendations and proposed corrective actions.

Topic: Environmental Cleanup