Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies is interested in a potential 10-year, $4 billion support services contract at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
BWXT was one of many well-known DOE contractors to send representatives last week to information sessions on DOE’s draft request for proposals on the Hanford Mission Essential Services Contract.
“BWXT representatives attended the information session to learn more about the RFP as we consider a bid for this contract,” BWXT spokesman Jud Simmons said in an email reply to a reporter’s inquiry.
“BWXT is interested in continuing to expand our environmental management services footprint at Department of Energy sites, and we will evaluate how the requirements of this RFP compare to our core competencies and expertise going forward,” Simmons added. The email did not specify if BWXT was looking to participate as a solo prime or a team member.
During a November earnings call, BWXT President and CEO Rex Geveden said the company expected to be an active player in upcoming DOE solicitations. If its new $4.7 billion contract holds up under protest, a BWXT-led team will in 2018 take over liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
On Wednesday, a team comprised of Stoller Newport News Nuclear and BWXT was awarded a $1.39 billion contract for cleanup of legacy wastes at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. BWXT is a partner in the incumbent LANL legacy waste and management contractor, Los Alamos Nuclear Security (LANS).
Fluor, which also sent representatives to the Hanford draft RFP sessions, declined to reveal if it intends to pursue the services contract at the former plutonium production complex and current massive cleanup site. Company policy is not to comment on contracts that Fluor might or might not compete for, spokesperson Annika Toenniessen said by telephone.
The incumbent services contractor is Mission Support Alliance, a partnership of Leidos, Jacobs Engineering, and Centerra Group. The current contract expires on May 25, 2019. Leidos, Centerra, and newly acquired Jacobs subsidiary CH2M all had representatives at the contract information sessions.
A Leidos spokesperson had previously said the company and MSA planned to fully participate in the upcoming draft RFP from DOE on the Hanford support services.
Some other familiar names within the DOE vendor community that signed up to learn more about the draft RFP included: AREVA, Atkins, Booz Allen, Huntington Ingalls (owner of Stoller Newport News Nuclear), Navarro Research and Engineering, Parsons, Perma-Fix, Veolia Nuclear, and Wastren Advantage.
The contract would include services ranging from security, land management, and information technology to management of the Hazardous Material Management and Emergency Response (HAMMER) training site.
The Energy Department recently said it wants to consider feedback on an “alternate cost model” that could use “static” or “historical” scopes of work by Hanford contractors. Such an approach could reduce the amount of paperwork bidders must prepare, DOE said in a Dec. 8 notice. The department the input could be useful for this and future procurements.
Comments on all aspects of the draft RFP, except cost models, are due by Jan. 8. Comments on cost models are due by Jan. 19.
