DOE Nevada Environmental Contract Draft RFP Expected in July

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management anticipates it will in July issue a draft request for proposals for the Nevada Environmental Services Program at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS).

That is according to documents posted on a DOE procurement website for industry meetings held Monday and Tuesday in Las Vegas.

The Office of Environmental Management announced Jan. 9 it had issued a request for information on the procurement. Parties interested in the presolicitation were asked to submit a capability statement of no more than 15 pages by 3 p.m. EST on Feb. 2.

Navarro Research and Engineering has held the current $64.3 million contract since March 2015. The contract runs through Jan. 31, 2020, including all available extensions.

It appears EM is considering a potential environmental contract stretching into fiscal 2030, which could be worth more than $247 million, according to a presentation posted online by EM Nevada Program Manager Rob Boehlecke.

Once called the Nevada Test Site, NNSS is located in Nye County, Nev., about 65 miles from Las Vegas. It was the location of explosive nuclear tests until the early 1990s, and remains active in nuclear stockpile stewardship operations, among others.

From 1951 to 1992, 828 underground nuclear tests were conducted at the site, about one-third of them in the general vicinity of the water table.

“Due to the preliminary stage of this planning activity, there is no Performance Work Statement available at this time,” DOE said in industry day slides. Some major elements of the scope include underground test area activity, soil remediation, and facility decontamination and demolition. The procurement will also involve a lead role in the radioactive waste acceptance program: NNSS is a disposal site for approved DOE and Department of Defense waste.

The underground test area work involves installation of monitoring wells, including hydraulic testing and groundwater sampling.

Participants in this week’s industry meetings were not listed online as of Thursday.

Once the draft RFP is released in July, additional industry meetings and site tours are expected, DOE said in the solicitation.