A federal judge this week did not throw out on technical grounds a $45-billion liquid waste cleanup contract the Department of Energy issued in April, but the BWX Technologies-led joint venture that won the business still must explain its legal eligibility for the award.
The team, Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure, was given until Monday June 5 to brief the Court of Federal Claims on why the deal should not be voided simply because the company was not properly registered with the System for Award Management, the federal government’s procurement system, when it won the contract.
Aside from BWX Technologies (BWXT) the winning bidder includes Amentum and Fluor. In a court filing posted online Tuesday, the team asked for more time to answer the registration question and other issues it “has not yet had an opportunity to fully address,” according to an unsealed court order dated Wednesday.
Judge Marian Horn’s order instructed all parties to file their briefs by Monday June 5. The Wednesday order noted the original deadline was June 1. The defendant U.S. Justice Department supported the extension although Atkins-led rival and bid protester Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance opposed it.
The plaintiff contends the BWXT-Amentum-Fluor team was formed in July 2021 and registered with the procurement tracking system shortly thereafter. But the registration lapsed a year later in August 2022 and was not renewed until Jan. 25, 2023, a couple of weeks after the amended contract offer was submitted to DOE.
At stake is perhaps the largest nuclear weapons cleanup contract in the history of the enterprise, the prized Integrated Tank Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
The losing bidder, which besides Atkins includes Jacobs and Westinghouse, wants the Federal Claims Court to disqualify the BWXT team’s proposal and award it the contract, which calls for cleaning up liquid radioactive waste left over from Manhattan Project and Cold War plutonium production.
On Tuesday, Judge Horn held a closed hearing with lawyers for the Justice Department, the bid protester and the awardee.
The Atkins group filed the challenge with the court early in May, taking the unusual step of bypassing the Government Accountability Office, where most DOE bid protests are filed. With the matter under litigation, DOE has agreed to hold off on formally issuing the contract to the BWXT group.
The contract calls for management of Hanford’s 177 underground radioactive waste tanks, emptying them and eventually solidifying the waste inside of them using the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant being built by Bechtel.
