Energy officials award incentive pay to Hanford contractors

RICHLAND — The Department of Energy is awarding nearly $77 million in incentive pay to four contractors for their work at the Hanford nuclear reservation in fiscal 2020.

The Tri-City Herald reports all earned a larger percentage of available incentive pay for their performance in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 than they did in the previous fiscal year.

The Hanford site in Eastern Washington state has 56 million gallons of radioactive waste in underground tanks. The waste is left from producing about two-thirds of the nation’s plutonium from World War II through the Cold War for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

The awards are for Hanford’s three environmental cleanup contractors and its sitewide services contractor, which supports cleanup. Together they employ about 6,100 workers.

Hanford contracts over the last decade have typically reimbursed companies for their costs of work at the nuclear reservation and allowed them to earn profit by completing specific work and through a subjective evaluation.

Not included in the fee awards announced this week is Bechtel National, which is building and starting up the $17 billion Hanford vitrification plant. It is on a calendar-year review and fee schedule.

Rather than releasing the complete review, DOE in recent years has made public a scorecard that lists fee earned and a brief recap of work that was done well and also areas needing improvement.