No Safety Problems Found in Fluor Unit Nuclear Job

A federal Department of Energy probe of allegations that a Fluor Corp. subsidiary is mismanaging a $2.2-billion nuclear facility cleanup in Ohio has ended without uncovering any financial or safety problems. The Fluor unit is in charge of the cleanup of the Fernald, Ohio, processing plant for weapons-grade nuclear material.

But Irvine-based Fluor’s Fermco subsidiary (it stands for Fernald Environmental Restoration Management Corp.) still is the subject of an independent investigation by the U.S. General Accounting Office--which says it is also looking at the quality of the Department of Energy’s oversight of the project.

Fernald is a former federal production site for weapons-grade nuclear material. Fermco, a consortium controlled by Fluor, was hired to manage the cleanup there.

The Cincinnati Enquirer recently ran a series of articles blasting Fermco for widespread billing irregularities and hundreds of safety violations. Both the DOE review and the GAO probe were launched at the request of Ohio congressmen.

Fluor has denied any wrongdoing.

In a March 29 memo to the Energy Department’s Ohio field office manager, Thomas P. Grumbly, assistant secretary for environmental management, said that neither of the two DOE teams assigned to review the Fernald situation “found any evidence supporting the Enquirer’s characterization of ‘danger and deceit’ at the site.”

The teams did, however, find that the department needed to tighten up its oversight and that Fermco needed to speed up its reporting of contract cost changes. The General Accounting Office says it should complete its investigation by early fall.

Officials at Fluor are anxiously awaiting that report because the company is aggressively seeking other nuclear cleanup contracts, including a multibillion-dollar deal late this year at the federal government’s Hanford nuclear site in Washington.

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John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations, manufacturing and economic issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com