Yucca contractor has incentives

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, May 5, 2004 | 10:28 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has $85 million in incentives waiting for its Yucca Mountain project contractor to meet upcoming deadlines for the license application and other work on the project, according to its contract.

Seven different multi-million dollar "performance based incentives" aim to keep Bechtel SAIC Co. on track to get the department's license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by December and keep the process moving until 2006.

The company has had a $1.8 billion contract with the department since November 2000 to operate and manage work at the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The contract runs through March 2006.

Bechtel will earn $22 million if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission accepts the department's license application by March 2005. The contract says this deadline is important so the commission can begin its review, complete it within three years, "and for NRC to issue the Construction Authorization at the end of the 3 year NRC review period."

Prior to that, it would also earn $11 million for completing a draft license application by July 26 and $15 million for a submitting a final draft of the application by Nov. 30. Each bonus decreases by certain percentages for every workday missed after the deadline.

Allen Benson, Yucca Mountain project spokesman, said the bonus agreement was signed about a year ago and bonuses are not uncommon in department contracts.