The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is promising by to soon spell out steps for “final” revisions to bid proposals for the liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. At least one industry source, however, doubts DOE will fully reconsider its original contract award from last fall.
After the Government Accountability Office last month upheld a bid protest over the 10-year, $4.7 billion contract issued in October to Savannah River EcoManagement, the Energy Department on Wednesday told the three bidding teams it would soon put the ball back into their court.
Officials from DOE EM met with representatives of the teams separately that day in Aiken, S.C. During the meetings, the nuclear cleanup office indicated it will soon ask the bidders for their “Revised Final Proposal Revision” for the SRS contract.
The Energy Department said it would provide the offerors with printed guidance for the final revision within 30 days of the March 14 meetings. That would be April 13 by the calendar, though it was not clear if DOE was referring to calendar days or business days.
The three bidding teams would then be required to submit their final revisions by a date that is yet to be determined, according to the source.
Savannah River EcoManagement is a partnership of BWX Technologies, Bechtel National, and Honeywell.
The source, who said he had communicated with certain people who attended the meetings, said the two losing teams in the original October contract award – one comprised of AECOM and CH2M and the other Fluor and Westinghouse – didn’t seem pleased with the tone of the sessions.
These were “check the box meetings,” the source said Thursday. “It appears they [DOE officials] are planning to forge ahead with their original decision” rather than truly taking a fresh look at the solicitation.
The GAO in February said DOE failed to verify the technical approach for liquid waste processing, proposed by the winning BWXT-led team, would work. The congressional auditor sustained a bid protest brought by the AECOM-CH2M team while it dismissed a protest from the Fluor-Westinghouse partnership.
The latest direction from DOE regarding revisions or explanation to the proposals does not seem to satisfy GAO’s direction to confirm the winning team’s approach would function as intended, the source said.
The Savannah River Site stores 36 million gallons of radioactive nuclear waste in 43 underground storage tanks. The next contractor would take over waste processing and tank closure operations now conducted by Savannah River Remediation, a partnership of AECOM, BWXT, Bechtel National, and CH2M. The technical approach put forward by the winning team was a significant departure from past practice and DOE had not properly vetted it, the GAO concluded.
The winning team submitted the low bid of $4.7 billion. Fluor and Westinghouse submitted the second-lowest at roughly $5.5 billion, and the AECOM-CH2M venture submitted the highest bid at just under $6 billion.
There was no immediate comment on the situations from the bidding companies, and DOE has a policy of not commenting on procurement matters.
Savannah River Remediation will remain on the job until at least the end of May, under a five-month contract extension issued in December.
