Some prospective bidders for the Department of Energy’s potentially $3-billion, 10-year prime contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico are worried about the financial penalties the agreement prescribes for failing to finish a new ventilation system and other infrastructure projects, according to questions and answers published last week.
The next Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Management and Operations Contract calls for significant fee cuts if the next prime cannot finish the Safety Significant Confined Ventilation System (SSCVS) in 2024 as DOE now expects. Bids are due Aug. 3.
“As we understand this clause, all award fee is partially held hostage to two Capital Asset Project CLINs,” said one questioner, referring to the contract line item numbers for the SSCVS and a new underground exhaust shaft. New Mexico regulators are weighing a request from the DOE and current WIPP prime Nuclear Waste Partnership to continue digging the shaft after the state put the project on hold last October in part over COVID-19 concerns.
As is standard DOE practice, questions and answers from potential bidders are published on the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center website but identities of the firms are withheld.
Another questioner said it appears, “Management award fee criteria will be rated no higher than Satisfactory, and only up to 50% of the individual Capital Asset Project PBI [performance-based incentives] metric/milestone fees can be earned.”
To this line of commentary, DOE replied completion of the capital asset projects “are considered critical” to WIPP, the transuranic waste generator sites and the overall mission for the Office of Environmental Management. At the same time, the DOE contracting officer has authority to consider “excusable” delays. One commenter said project completion can be affected by everything from regulatory delays to delays in acquiring certain key materials or components.
The WIPP prime has already replaced the first subcontractor hired to build the SSCVS, which is designed to nearly triple the underground airflow to 540,000 cubic feet per minute. That volume of ventilation would allow personnel to mine out new disposal places while their colleagues emplace waste — something WIPP has not been able to do since the underground fire and radiation release of 2014.
In a response to a different set of questions, the top salary available to key people on this federal project under White House guidelines is now $568,000 annually compared with $525,000 originally listed in the request for proposals. A future amendment to the solicitation will reflect the higher salary cap, DOE said.
Nuclear Waste Partnership, an Amentum-BWX Technologies team, holds the WIPP management contract, which is valued at $2.7 billion. The contract started in October 2012 and under the latest extension is set to run to March 2022.
