Mismanagement by the U.S. Energy Dept. has added $196 million and three years to cleanup of a former nuclear fuel-processing site in West Valley, N.Y., said April Stephenson, DOE acting inspector general in an April 26 report. “The project was not administered using basic project management principles,” she said.
Neither DOE nor its contractor CH2M Hill-B&W West Valley had adequate baselines, well-defined scopes of work or systems to control and plan work, according to Stephenson. As a result, the contractor could not meet cleanup targets. DOE awarded in 2011 a $333-million, six-year contract to dispose of legacy waste by 2014, relocate high-level waste by 2015 and demolish the main plant and vitrification facilities by this August.