The Department of Energy on Tuesday told a BWX Technologies-led team to proceed with the takeover of the Hanford Site’s liquid waste cleanup mission under a $45 billion contract.
The 120-day transition from Amentum-led incumbent Washington River Protection Solutions will begin Oct. 21, more than a year after DOE first awarded the Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract to Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure (H2C), which also includes Amentum and Fluor.
DOE announced the notice to proceed with the contract in an all-hands email to the Hanford Field Office in Washington state.
The transition was delayed by lawsuits filed by bidder, the AtkinsRéalis Nuclear Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance, which also includes Jacobs and Westinghouse. On Aug. 28, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims upheld DOE’s second award to H2C, made in February.
September’s merger between Amentum and parts of Jacobs assured the combined company of a role on the new deal and of long-term roles at the former plutonium production complex in eastern Washington State.
The Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract is worth $45 billion over 10 years, with options. H2C could be on the job for another 15 years, however, because DOE is allowed to give out five-year task orders under the indefinite quantity indefinite delivery end-state contract.
The new contract combines management of Hanford’s underground tank farms, which hold some 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste leftover from making plutonium for U.S. nuclear weapons, with operation of a Bechtel National-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization plant that will solidify at least some of that waste for permanent disposal.
