A BWX Technologies-led joint venture that twice won a $45-billion liquid waste contract at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, last week withdrew its 2023 case with a federal appeals court, seemingly clearing the way for a U.S. Federal Claims Court to again rule on a contract challenge by the losing bidder.
According to online court records, BWXT-led Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) voluntarily withdrew its case Friday June 21 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
H2C filed its appeals court action in August 2023 after Judge Marian Blank Horn in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims blocked its initial contract award by DOE and ruled in favor of AtkinsRéalis-led Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance (HTDA), the rival bidder for the work.
Also in 2023, Horn told DOE to re-evaluate its award and the winner’s failure to stay continuously registered with a federal online procurement-tracking system. The agency, which held the registration issue should be considered a fixable error, in February awarded the blockbuster contract to H2C for a second time, which triggered a second HTDA challenge.
During June 14 oral arguments, Horn told H2C, HTDA and the Department of Justice, which acts as DOE’s attorney, to brief the court about why it should consider HTDA’s litigation while a related case was pending at the appeals court.
On June 21, intervenor H2C “notified the court that intervenor had filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss the appeal at the Federal Circuit, and, the same day, on June 21, 2024, the Federal Circuit dismissed the appeal,” Horn wrote June 21. “In light of the dismissal, the parties do not need to file supplemental briefs regarding jurisdiction,” which were due June 28, the judge said.
HTDA did not oppose the H2C motion to withdraw the appeals court case, according to filings there.
H2C, the two-time winner of the DOE award, is made up of BWXT, Amentum and Fluor.
HTDA members are AtkinsRéalis, Nuclear Secured, Jacobs and Westinghouse.
The lead partners in the respective groups, BWXT and AtkinsRéalis, declined comment Tuesday.
In November, Amentum announced plans to merge with the government contracting branch of Jacobs, which would seem to assure the combined company a share of the contract no matter what happens in court.
At issue is the $45-billion Integrated Tank Disposition Contract, which would combine the existing contracts for managing and emptying underground tanks containing liquid radioactive waste with the eventual operation of a Bechtel-built plant to turn much of the liquid waste into a solid glass form.
Hanford has about 56 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste left from decades of plutonium production.
