BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Closing a chapter in the cleanup of the former Fernald uranium processing plant, the Department of Energy (DOE) Tuesday announced the extension of site manager Fluor Daniel Fernald's contract through November 2000.
The one-year extension of a contract that had already assured Fluor Daniel's position through November 1999, is valued at $305 million.
It represents a vote of confidence in the contractor that came under heavy fire two years ago for inefficiency, a poor safety record and failure to comply with cleanup procedures.
"If you took any one of these issues by themselves, they might not constitute an overriding concern. But when they started popping up into a cluster, that was a little different," said Glenn Griffiths, DOE deputy director of the Fernald environmental management project. "It led DOE to the conclusion that we had to take a step back . . . and look at these safety issues."
In the fall of 1997, the DOE gave Fluor Daniel a two-year contract -- rather than the expected three-year deal -- and required the company to complete a nine-month assessment and improvement report on its cleanup procedures. Over the past 30 days, DOE officials have reviewed and verified the report.
Lisa Crawford, founder of Fernald Residents for Environmental Health and Safety (FRESH), said she is not surprised that Fluor Daniel won the extension. Her grass-roots organization supported the contractor in 1996 because "it would have been really chaotic to just change contractors," she said.
"We were in their corner. At the same time, we were challenging them to do the right thing," she added.
John Bradburne, the company's president and chief operating officer, circulated a congratulatory memo to employees and they will celebrate with an on-site picnic Thursday.
Fluor Daniel will continue, however, without handling one of the most lucrative and important projects on site: the treatment and removal of dangerous radioactive materials from two storage silos.
DOE officials decided that project, which was abruptly halted after a meltdown in December 1996, will be handled by outside contractors.
