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Assessing the Need for Independent Project Reviews in the Department of Energy (1998) / Chapter Skim
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DOE'S CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM AND PROCEDURES
Pages 11-16

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From page 11...
... The laboratories originally focused exclusively on the development of nuclear weapons, but as the need for these complex weapon systems has waned, they have increasingly branched out to other activities related to environmental remediation, commercial energy, and other research. The national laboratories, with varying management organizations and cultures, have traditionally operated in an independent and decentralized manner.
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From page 12...
... DOE personnel serve mainly in an oversight capacity. This raises a serious question about whether the present acquisition system provides DOE managers with sufficient management and review capability and accountability to ensure that budget requests are realistic in terms of scope, costs, and schedules.
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From page 13...
... Construction project phases and critical decisions 2 Total project cost (TPC) includes all costs specific to a project incurred prior to He start-up of operations, including research and development, operating, plant, and capital equipment costs.
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From page 14...
... The privatization concept involves competitively bid fixed-price contracts, performance specifications, and delayed reimbursements based on the satisfactory cleanup of unit quantities. Me disadvantage of the traditional cost-reimbursement contracts for environmental restoration is that they provide little incentive, if any, for controlling costs or Introducing competing technologies (although DOE is experimenting with alternative contract forms that do not require DOE, as the owner, to assume the filll risk and do not require the contractor to include the full risk in a fixed price)
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From page 15...
... and subsequent contract documents are properly constituted, that the risks are fairly distributed for the technology involved, that contractors proposals are responsive to the REP, that the DOE management team is properly configured and staffed, and Mat proposed solutions are viable. Independent reviews could also assess whether potential contingencies have been recognized and whether a system for promptly resolving disputes is in place.
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Key Terms

  • privatization projects
  • estimated cost
  • restoration projects
  • doe personnel
  • privatization concept

  • binding requirements
  • environmental remediation
  • activities related
  • legally binding
  • independent reviews

  • total estimated
  • performance specifications
  • total project
  • project cost
  • execution plan

  • laboratories originally
  • reimbursements based
  • phase includes
  • commercial energy
  • producing weapons

  • regulating bodies
  • review capability
  • management team
  • waste management
  • project execution

  • promptly resolving
  • term privatization
  • warrant sizable
  • treatment project
  • provide little


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