The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management did not wait until Black Friday to start shopping for ideas on the next round of nuclear cleanup at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Idaho National Laboratory.
The office on Wednesday issued separate requests for information (RFI)/sources sought notices for upcoming solicitations at the two sites where Fluor leads the current contractor teams.
In both RFIs, the agency is requesting capability statements from prospective contractors and feedback on innovative “end state” remediation goals that are doable within 10 years. “This market research will assist DOE with identifying interested and capable sources and developing its acquisition strategy,” DOE said.
The latest Environmental Management procurement chart, published in October, does not list a projected date for a draft request for proposals (RFP) for either project. Likewise, a review of some of key documents did not turn up a schedule for RFPs at either site.
Idaho
Fluor Idaho has a five-year, $1.5 billion contract through May 21 for remediation operations at the Idaho National Laboratory. The Energy Department wants to reduce hurdles to competition, study small business capabilities, and identify risks. Most cleanup work at INL is driven by regulatory compliance agreements, dating to the 1990s, the RFI said.
Fluor Idaho is a subsidiary of Fluor Corp., with key subcontractors CH2M, Waste Control Specialists, and North Wind Group. The INL cleanup itself dates to 1989 and is geared toward protecting the Snake River Plain Aquifer, a water source for 300,000 people in the state.
Much of the project revolves around addressing low-level radioactive and hazardous that have been buried in INL’s pits and trenches for a half-century. The project includes closure of the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC), covering moving spent nuclear fuel from wet storage to dry, getting leftover transuranic (TRU) waste out of Idaho, processing sodium-bearing waste, and closing tanks where this sodium-laden material is now held.
Fluor Idaho is interested in keeping the business, spokesman Erik Simpson said by email Thursday. “We are monitoring it closely and intend to pursue the opportunity.”
The contractor has been dealing with the aftermath of an April 11 accident in which four drums of radioactive sludge waste overheated and blew off their lids. The 55-gallon drums were breached after depleted uranium inside the containers contacted air for the first time in decades, Fluor and the Energy Department said in an analysis published in late October.
The analysis faulted Fluor for failing to take sufficient care in reopening and repacking sludge waste, which was buried for years at INL after being shipped from the old Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado.
The contractor has not identified a date for sludge repackaging to resume at the fabric building within the Radioactive Waste Management Complex, where the accident occurred.
The Energy Department and Fluor have acknowledged they will not meet a Dec. 31, 2018, milestone to treat and certify for shipment to DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant all TRU waste covered by a 1995 settlement agreement between the state, DOE, and the U.S. Navy. The agreement called for out-of-state disposal of 65,000 cubic meters of TRU waste resulting from cleanup at sites such as the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado.
The contracting officer for the Idaho RFI is Lori Sehlhorst, [email protected].
The Energy Department deadline for submitting any capability statements and questions about the Idaho RFI is 5 p.m. ET on Dec. 12. The information should be emailed to [email protected].
Portsmouth
At the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth in September received its final extension, through March 2021, on its current 10-year, $3.7 billion decontamination and decommissioning contract.
“The purpose of the potential contract will be to achieve completion of the DOE-EM mission at the Portsmouth Site by accomplishing the environmental cleanup in the least amount of time and at the best value to the U.S. taxpayer,” according to the RFI.
The RFI on the next contract covers demolition and disposal of all uranium enrichment plant buildings, process equipment, and related facilities, along with cleanup of contaminated soils and groundwater.
An Energy Department timeline calls for demolition of three major process buildings at Portsmouth – X-326, X-333, and X-330 – “complete to slab” by the end of fiscal 2028. These are 1950s vintage buildings initially constructed to enrich uranium for nuclear defense.
The document also says the next contractor would assume operation of the waste disposal cell being developed at Portsmouth. The On-Site Waste Disposal Facility should be receiving waste when the next contractor takes over, DOE said. The department expects the $900 million facility will, starting in fiscal 2021, dispose of 2 million cubic yards of waste with low levels of contamination resulting from demolition at Portsmouth.
A Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth spokesman, Jack Williams, declined to comment Wednesday on whether the contractor will bid again. “Due to the competitive nature of the contract bid process, FBP does not publicly provide information on the details associated with prospective opportunities.”
BWX Technologies “carefully reviews RFIs for Department of Energy D&D projects such as this where we see that our expertise is a good match for the requirements of the contract,” spokesman Jud Simmons said by email Thursday. “We are very proud of our performance in the last seven-plus years at this facility, and we are interested in continuing our involvement there as cleanup efforts continue into the future.”
The contracting officer for the RFI is Kimberly Tate, [email protected].
Any feedback or questions on the RFI should be submitted by 5 p.m. ET on Dec. 14 to [email protected].
