The Energy Department last week said it plans up to yearlong extensions to existing contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state for management of underground tank waste and laboratory testing services.
Washington River Protection Solutions’ (WRPS) long-term contract, now valued at about $7.8 billion, could be extended to Sept. 30, 2021, according to a DOE notice Wednesday on a government procurement website. The contractor is a joint venture of Amentum and Atkins.
In May, the Energy Department selected a team led by BWX Technologies to succeed the WRPS team through a potential $13 billion, 10-year tank closure contract. Bid protests were promptly filed with the Government Accountability Office by a Jacobs-led group and an Atkins-Amentum joint venture. The GAO is expected to rule on those protests in September.
In a separate Wednesday notice, DOE announced plans to extend Veolia’s contract to provide analysis and testing services at Hanford’s 222-S Laboratory from its scheduled Sept. 21, 2020, expiration to Sept. 20, 2021. Wastren Advantage, acquired by Veolia in January 2018, started work on the original $52 million contract in September 2015. The vendor tests sludge and liquid waste from Hanford’s tank farms to evaluate conditions inside the tanks, and also helps support industrial hygiene and groundwater monitoring at the site.
Washington River Protection Solutions runs the laboratory as part of its contract to manage Hanford’s 177 underground waste tanks.
The procurement notices announcing the planned extensions for WRPS and Veolia did not specify their potential values. The Energy Department usually does not publish such figures until contract extensions are formally issued.
