The U.S. Energy Department on Tuesday issued its final request for proposals (RFP) for the Nationwide Deactivation, Decommissioning, and Removal contract, which could be worth up to $3 billion over 10 years.
The first of what is expected to be many task orders under the multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract would cover removal for an excess contaminated facility, Building 251 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, DOE said in a press release.
Proposals on the work to take down and remediate Building 251 are due by Feb. 3, according to the cover letter to the RFP. Questions about the 24-month job should be emailed by 11:59 p.m. ET on Jan. 5, 2020, to [email protected].
Under the Energy Department’s new end state contract model, agreements can be signed based on a single task order under an IDIQ master agreement rather than an overall multi-year contract. Once the solicitation goes out, the Energy Department can then issue awards for separate task orders under the umbrella deactivation program, starting with the work at Livermore.
Used for more than 25 years until 1981 to provide heavy-element nuclear tracers to support underground testing of nuclear devices, Building 251 is now largely empty except for a 32,000-pound magnet assembly. The building is located in the western portion of the 1-square-mile Livermore property.
Over the 10-year term, DOE will employ the contract to decommission and dismantle old facilities now held by the Office of Environmental Management, the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Office of Naval Reactors (NR), and the Office of Science (SC), as well as other federal facilities. There will be more opportunities for “teaming subcontractors” under future task orders, according to the cover letter.
The Energy Department issued a draft RFP on Sept. 5 and provided a site tour and one-on-one meetings for potential bidders three weeks later at the nuclear-weapon laboratory. Comments on the draft solicitation were due Oct. 4.
The Energy Department has said it could award the contract about nine months after proposals are submitted, which would translate to roughly November 2020.
The Energy Department has established a source evaluation board (SEB) to assess the bids. One or more bidders might be selected via the master IDIQ contract “and therefore may be eligible to compete for future task orders under this Contract,” according to solicitation documents.
The winning bidder should be able to meet or exceed small business subcontracting goal of 45% for the Building 251 task order. The agency will look at recent past performance on contracts that are currently being executed or have been completed within the last three years. Management approach, adherence to schedule, and “cost realism” will be among the factors considered.
The contact person for the procurement is DOE Contracting Offir Michael McCreanor, at [email protected].
