The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office first rolled out its end state contracting model in 2018 and now wants to clearly define exactly how that model is supposed to work.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) tucked this nugget inside its Strategic Vision for 2021-2031.
“In 2021, EM will implement a new End-State Program Plan,” according to the 10-year document released Tuesday. “This plan will define the [end state] vision, explain how priorities are established, and clarify roles and responsibilities of each entity within DOE, as well as provide the necessary strategic view to stakeholders.”
The nuts-and-bolts of end state contracting remain fuzzy for many in the weapons complex contracting community, judging by questions and comments over the past couple of years during DOE presentations at major industry conferences such as the Waste Management Symposia.
The end state approach was introduced at EM during Anne Marie White’s tenure as assistant secretary and has since been incorporated into cleanup contracts for the Central Plateau of the Hanford Site in Washington state as well as the Nevada National Security Site. The DOE cleanup office expects to issue as many as four end state cleanup contracts this year, according to the 53-page document.
Sources expect the cleanup contract for the Idaho National Laboratory will be the next end state contract. The end state approach is employed for remediation business, and not used by EM for traditional management and operations contracts or for security or site services contracts.
This contracting model envisions a single award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for each acquisition, with the ability to issue both cost-reimbursement and firm-fixed-price task orders, according to a website administered through the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in Cincinnati.
