Savannah River Nuclear Solutions will stay on the job for another year as the management and operations contractor of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Department of Energy wrote in a procurement note earlier this month.
The agency announced the extension April 4, ahead of the July 31 expiration of the contract held by the Fluor-led imcumbent. The Energy Department has not yet started the competition for the follow-on contract, and intends to keep Savannah River Nuclear Solutions under contract through July 31, 2019.
“This proposed extension will enable DOE-SR to continue critical requirements for management and operating (M&O) at SRS while DOE fosters competition for award of a new M&O contract,” the agency stated in a procurement note.
It was not clear what the extension would be worth. The company’s current 10-year site management deal, awarded in 2008, was worth $9.5 billion.
The extension, DOE said, was allowed under federal regulations that permit “other than full and open competition” when there is only one reasonable provider of a service. “To DOE’s knowledge, only SRNS has the requisite knowledge, experience and capability to provide these critical, highly specialized services without interruption during the acquisition cycle for transition to a new contract,” according to the procurement note. “Essentially, SRNS is the only company qualified to show a new contractor the current operational parameters during the acquisition cycle for a new contract.”
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management owns both the major contracts at the Savannah River Site: the management and operations pact that includes solid waste cleanup, operations of the Savannah River National Laboratory, and the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) tritium operations; and a separate liquid-waste cleanup deal.
The Energy Department had not issued a draft request for proposals for a follow-on management and operations contract at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. The agency has said it will drop a draft solicitation by April 29, a Sunday.
The liquid-waste contract was due to change hands this year, but is presumed to be under reconsideration after the Government Accountability Office in February upheld a bid protest against the October $4.7 billion award to Savannah River EcoManagement: a team comprised of BWX Technologies, Bechtel, and Honeywell.
The NNSA’s tritium sustainment program, which funds the Savannah River work, got an 80-percent budget increase to almost $200 million in 2018, after Congress passed a permanent budget for the fiscal year last month. The White House wants to bump that up another 3.5 percent or so to $205 million in fiscal 2019, according to the latest NNSA budget request.
