Comments are due Nov. 2 on a draft solicitation for a new, potentially decade-spanning contract for more than $600 million worth of work at the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project in Moab, Utah, the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management said this week.
The draft request for proposals (RFP) comes after the agency kicked off its market research last year into the next contract for removing tailings from the old Atlas Mineral Corp. uranium ore processing site. The material is shipped by rail to the Crescent Junction waste disposal facility 30 miles away.
North Wind Portage holds the current $187-million contract that began in October 2016 and is scheduled to run through September 2021. The new contract is expected to be bigger, according to draft RFP documents. The deal will have a ceiling of $614 million over a maximum of 15 years. That includes a 60-day transition period.
The award will be an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract. In addition to cost, contractor selection will be based upon management approach, key personnel, and past performance, according to the RFI.
The Department of Energy anticipates there will be a 30-day proposal preparation period once the final RFP hits the streets.
The draft RFP seeks industry feedback on strategies for closing the sites in keeping with the department’s end-state contracting model, according to the DOE press release.
Under the end-state model, DOE will select a contractor and then negotiate task orders with the goal of being able to complete the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project in less than 10 years.
Project completion includes completing the installation of the disposal cell final cover, and restoration of the Moab and Crescent Junction sites, according to the scope of work. The winning contractor will be responsible for getting necessary approvals for truck or rail transportation, including negotiating an agreement with the Union Pacific railway.
The 435-acre Moab property includes 130 acres covered by a uranium mill tailings pile at the intersection of the Colorado River and the Moab Wash.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management said in a press release this week that workers have moved 11 million tons of the total 16 million tons of mill tailings from the Moab site to the engineered disposal site in Crescent Junction. One million tons have been moved since last September, DOE said.
The Department of Energy’s contracting officer for the solicitation is Michael Forsgren, who can be reached via email at [email protected].
Questions about the draft solicitation can be sent to [email protected].
