DOE awards $1.1B DUF6 operations contract sans NNSA DUF4 line

A nuclear cleanup contract awarded this week to an Atkins-led team could be modified later to include production of depleted uranium tetrafluoride for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

As expected, the Portsmouth / Paducah Project Office (PPPO) Operations and Site Mission Support contract, awarded Nov. 8 to Mission Conversion Services Alliance by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, no longer includes a guaranteed depleted uranium tetrafluoride (DUF4) production line at Portsmouth Site. 

However, as a hedge for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) strategy to produce high purity depleted uranium for its defense programs, the contract could be modified later to include the DUF4 line as a separate order, as detailed in a 2022 amendment to the contract’s statement of work.

A“primary component of the OSMS contract is to perform Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride conversion operation,” a spokesperson for the DOE Environmental Management Office told the Exchange Monitor in an email on Thursday. “Any additional work associated with the project will be performed through individual task orders.” 

The contract would be worth up to $2.3-billion and run through 2035, if all options are picked up. It includes converting depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) at Paducah Site in Kentucky and Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The contract’s base period is worth $1.1 billion and runs through 2030.

After the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management took much longer than anticipated to award the PPPO contract, the NNSA moved on from an earlier plan, detailed in 2020, to anchor its depleted uranium production in Portsmouth.

In May, the DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) began planning a contract to annually produce 250 tons of depleted uranium tetrafluoride, or DUF4, as an intermediary stage to producing 400 metric tons of DUF6 annually for manufacturing nuclear weapons. 

Aside from Atkins Nuclear Secured Westinghouse Government Services, Mission Conversion Services Alliance also includes Jacobs Technology, which is a part of Amentum Holdings, and has Swift & Staley Inc. and Akima Centerra Integrated Services as subcontractors.

Other NNSA-related work under the contract, including DUF6 shipments, remains as expected. According to the performance work statement for the contract, the contractor would support transporting and shipping cylinders by securing and loading cylinders onto conveyances and coordinating with NNSA at an offsite designated reception point.