But the department has recently penalized two contractors for poor performance. At Hanford, it ended a contract with BNFL to build and operate a factory for mixing high-level nuclear waste liquids into glass, because, Richardson said, cost increases had gotten out of hand, and managers had not kept the department informed. Last year, for similar reasons, it restructured a program to build the National Ignition Facility, a laser device designed to test the operability of nuclear weapons without actually exploding them. The contractor was the University of California. Outside critics say part of the department's problem is a continuing struggle between political appointees in its headquarters here and personnel in the field offices, many of whom have far more experience in the department's actual operations.
Many contractors know the government well because they are former government employees.
The project manager on the waste-processing plant at Hanford, Mike Lawrence, for example, was the former head of the Energy Department's office in Richland, which is in charge of Hanford. BNFL also hired away department contracting officers at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, near Idaho Falls, and at the Oak Ridge site, in Tennessee, to work on department projects. If they have one eye, and sometimes one foot, in the contractor's operation, the secretary has no way to get the information he needs to make sensible decisions. Copyright 2000 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.