B&W-LED TEAM PROTESTS Y-12/PANTEX PROCUREMENT FOR THIRD TIME

Babcock & Wilcox-led Nuclear Production Partners has renewed its challenge of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12/Pantex contract competition, protesting the agency’s procurement actions for the third time yesterday. NPP twice previously challenged the NNSA’s decision, first in January when the agency initially selected Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security and again this summer when the NNSA sought more information from bidders after the GAO upheld its first protest. The GAO called many of the claims in B&W’s second protest premature, including an argument that NNSA violated Federal Acquisition Regulations by not allowing bidders to revise their proposals beyond follow-up information sought by the agency in June, and B&W said yesterday that its latest protest reflects those issues as well as new information from the NNSA’s Nov. 15 debriefing. The NNSA reaffirmed its selection of CNS Nov. 1. “The protest filed today results from a continuation of concerns from our previous protests and new issues identified in the evaluation of our Final Proposal Revision,” B&W Technical Services Group President George Dudich said in a statement. “Our team values our relationships with NNSA and the overall mission of the Nuclear Security Enterprise, but we believe this protest has merit and reflects new issues regarding the limited corrective actions that failed to resolve issues previously raised.”

Because B&W—the lead incumbent at Y-12 and Pantex—filed its protest within five days of the debriefings, an automatic stay of award has been triggered, preventing transition to CNS from beginning. The NNSA declined to comment on the latest protest. It’s unclear whether a third team led by Jacobs/Fluor is again protesting the award, and the team did not respond to a request for comment. GAO has 100 days to rule on the protest, a window that stretches until Feb. 28, 2014.