The Energy Department this week was to debrief the runners-up for the potentially 10-year, $1.5 billion contract won by a CH2M-led team for continued cleanup of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky.
DOE received four bids for the contract, which the agency announced May 26 went to Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership. The team also includes Fluor Corp. and BWX Technologies.
Sources this week said AECOM and Bechtel led separate bids. Former Paducah cleanup contractor LATA — Los Alamos Technical Associates — was rumored to be part of a team.
Once all the runners-up are debriefed, they will have two weeks to protest DOE’s award with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). If anyone lodges a protest, GAO would have 100 days to rule on the matter.
Four Rivers was to start transitioning onto the job this month. Paducah incumbent Fluor Federal Services is set to wrap up its roughly three-year, $420 million gaseous diffusion plant deactivation contract on July 21.
The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant operated from 1952 to 2013, providing enriched uranium for the U.S. nuclear arsenal and then for nuclear power plant fuel.
The new contract has a $750 million base term for five years of work, then separate three-year and two-year options that would in total be worth another $750 million. It includes such work as: facility characterization and stabilization; groundwater remediation; waste operations; utility operations; surveillance and maintenance.
