The deadline has passed for revised proposals from the three teams that bid on the contract for liquid waste management services at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to industry sources.
The Energy Department requested the updated bids after one of the losing teams successfully protested the October 2017 award of a 10-year, $4.7 billion contract to Savannah River EcoManagement: a partnership of BWX Technologies, Bechtel, and Honeywell.
None of the companies had confirmed by deadline that they had submitted revised contract offers. “I would be shocked if anyone did not” given the time and money already expended on the effort, said one industry source.
The source said he has heard DOE plans to make its post-protest contract award by September. The Energy Department does not comment on active procurements.
The Savannah River Site is home to about 36 million gallons of radioactive waste left over from Cold War nuclear weapons production. The waste is currently stored in 43 underground tanks.
The contract covers liquid waste stabilization and disposal, operation of liquid waste storage tanks, and, eventually, operating the Salt Waste Processing Facility. Contractor Parsons is currently testing and commissioning the SWPF.
Savannah River EcoManagement was scheduled to begin work following a 90-day transition period. However, both of the other bidders – a Fluor-Westinghouse team and an AECOM-CH2M partnership – protested the award with the Government Accountability Office. In February, the congressional auditor upheld the AECOM-CH2M protest, ruling DOE failed to properly vet the technology the BWXT-led team would use at SRS to treat the waste for disposal. The Energy Department subsequently requested the revised bids.
A second industry source believes whoever comes out on top the second time around, the contract could end up being litigated. The winning team from October obviously believes it should get the contract, and the same goes for the team that won the bid protest, he added. Fluor-Westinghouse lost its GAO protest, but conceivably it could still challenge the result.
Meanwhile, DOE has not yet finalized a potential contract extension for incumbent Savannah River Remediation (SRR) to continue treatment and disposal of liquid waste at SRS beyond the May 31 expiration of its current contract, an agency spokesperson said earlier this week.
Interested parties had until April 5 to comment on DOE’s intention to extend the current SRR contract for up to 10 months, through March 31, 2019. The department and its contractor are likely negotiating terms of an extension, said a third industry source, who noted the last Savannah River Remediation extension was announced less than four weeks before the contract was set to expire on Dec. 31.
Savannah River Remediation is led by AECOM with partners Bechtel National, CH2M, and BWX Technologies.
