In a matter of weeks, the Government Accountability Office could rule on two protests against the Department of Energy’s decision to let a Bechtel National-led group run the agency’s only underground repository for defense-related transuranic waste.
There are two appeals pending against the potentially 10-year, $3-billion management and operations contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. One was filed by the Huntington Ingalls Industries-led National TRU Solutions and another by the Westinghouse-led Carlsbad Operations Alliance.
The first bid protest was filed in late July by National TRU Solutions and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) 100-day deadline date for deciding that one is Nov. 3. The Carlsbad Ops Alliance filed its action days after the first protest, and both ventures have refreshed their challenges with updated filings since then. The GAO typically rules upon the whole set of challenges by the earliest possible date.
The cases were still listed as open on the GAO website as of Friday. Federal offices are closed Monday for the Columbus Day holiday.
In July, DOE awarded the management and operations contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico to Tularosa Basin Range Services, made up of Bechtel and subcontractor Los Alamos Technical Associates.
Nuclear Waste Partnership, a team comprised of Amentum and BWX Technologies, has run the salt mine disposal site since October 2012.The contract currently valued at $2.9-billion was technically supposed to lapse on Sept. 30, but DOE recently granted a contract extension for up to six months, which could run through March 2023.
In February 2014 a waste drum overheated, ruptured and leaked radiation into the WIPP underground and effectively stopped transuranic waste disposal for about three years.