The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday issued the formal solicitation for nuclear cleanup around St. Louis, Mo., under its Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP).
Under a single-award task order, the selected contractor would provide “any and all remediation work for remedial actions including general conditions, field engineering, radiological/safety support services, remediation of contaminated soil, and management services,” according to the notice from the Army Corps St. Louis District. “The work anticipated under this contract is primarily for, but not limited to, low level radioactive contaminated material removal. Radiological contaminates are primarily thorium, radium and uranium, with co-located non-radiological contamination such as cadmium and arsenic.”
Environmental remediation would encompass two locations: the St. Louis Downtown Site, contaminated by Mallinckrodt Chemical Works uranium processing operations for the federal government from 1942 to 1957; and the North St. Louis County Sites, which cover several properties that for decades stored waste residues from the Mallinckrodt operation.
The Army Corps believes 5,000 bank cubic yards of contaminated material remains to be dug up at the St. Louis Downtown Site, while 20,000 bank cubic yards remains at the North County Sites, the solicitation says.
Bidders have until 2 p.m. Central time on May 9 to respond to the solicitation. A site visit is scheduled for April 16, starting at 9 a.m. at 110 James McDonald Blvd. in Hazelwood, Mo.
The 45-year-old cleanup program is charged with identification and remediation of properties around the nation that were radioactively contaminated from the 1940s to 1960s by nuclear-weapon and energy operations of the Manhattan Engineer District and Atomic Energy Commission.
The Trump administration budget request for fiscal 2020 proposes returning FUSRAP to the Department of Energy, which under congressional order transferred the program to the Army Corps in 1997. While DOE’s Office of Legacy Management would assume top-level oversight, the Army Corps would continue to manage on-site operations on a “reimbursable basis.”
