CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) - A contracting company is suing Nuclear Waste Partnership over allegations that the manager of the U.S. government’s nuclear waste dump breached the contract it awarded for rebuilding the repository’s air system.
Critical Applications Alliance, a Carlsbad-based joint venture between Texas-based Christensen Building Group and Kilgore Industries, was hired in 2018 to build the ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for $135 million but the contract was terminated in August.
The company argues in the lawsuit that the project was troubled from the start, suffering from delays and frequent design changes resulting from Nuclear Waste Partnership’s inexperience in major construction projects.
Nuclear Waste Partnership declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The new system is intended to increase airflow at the repository so that mining operations and waste emplacement can occur at the same time. Work has been limited since 2014, when a radiation release contaminated part of the underground area and resulted in the need for additional precautions to be taken by workers.
Work on the ventilation system was supposed to be completed in September 2021, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reported. Critical Applications Alliance argued that delays were caused by Nuclear Waste Partnership’s continued changes to the project and requirements of the contract.
The lawsuit also pointed to design inadequacies, suggesting that specifications violated industry standards and that design drawings wre conflicting.
The roof panels for the ventilation building had to be redesigned, along with its foundation and the control system that would open or close ventilation dampers, causing work to drag on for more than a year, the lawsuit states.
According to the complaint, design changes made by Nuclear Waste Partnership as of Aug. 31, 2020, had delayed the project by 300 days. The contractor also claimed it had incurred millions of dollars in added costs and that Nuclear Waste Partnership refused to adequately compensate Critical Applications Alliance.
Critical Applications Alliance alleged it was given no reason for the contract’s termination and that Nuclear Waste Partnership still owed $12 million for unpaid invoices at the time of the termination.
The lawsuit demands a jury trial and says damages of no less than $32 million are in order.
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