The Energy Department on Monday issued its final request for proposals (RFP) for nationwide low-level and mixed low-level waste treatment services. The agency could award more than one basic ordering agreement (BOAs) for the work, according to the document.
The agreements will have a five-year ordering period, and task orders must be completed within six years. The timetable is expected to run from Dec. 5, 2002 to Dec. 4, 2025, according to the procurement documents.
The current agreements are held by Babcock Services, Environmental Dimensions, EnergySolutions, Omega Technical Services Group, Waste Control Specialists, UniTech Services Group, and Perma-Fix Environmental Services.
The participating vendors are expected to help further the Energy Department mission to remediate waste left over from nuclear weapons production and nuclear energy operations.
Contractors that win the new business should be able to treat a wide variety of mixed and low-level radioactive wastes. The material ranges from bulk survey for release (BSFR) waste, as defined by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its agreement states, to all sorts of radioactive waste in liquid, solid, sludge, or gaseous forms left over from federal nuclear weapons production. The waste might contain chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs).
The winners should be able to help with ancillary chores such as packaging and shipment of the waste from the point of origin to the treatment or disposal destination.
The basic ordering agreements are not officially considered “contracts,” as defined under Federal Acquisition Regulation, because there are no minimum dollar value or waste volume figures, which are expected to vary based on the tasks assigned.
Questions on the RFP should be emailed by Monday to [email protected]. Proposals are due by 4 p.m. Eastern time on Sept. 30 and should be emailed to [email protected].
The chief contact is DOE Contracting Officer Courtney Stallworth, at [email protected].
Procurement officials continue to stay busy at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. as comments are due Sept. 17 on a draft RFP for a long-term contract potentially worth up to $8.3 billion for for remediation at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The new deal would replace the $3.3 billion contract currently held by URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the Amentum-Jacobs partnership.
The agency has also said that by the end of the month it could issue the final RFP for the integrated mission completion solicitation for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. This will replace the $6 billion liquid waste contract held by Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation.
Also last month, DOE issued a requested for information on the next SRS management and operations contract. The current $15 billion contract is held by Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions.
DOE Should Release Draft Moab RFP Soon
The draft request for proposals for the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) project should hit the streets within 45 days, which translates to roughly Oct. 8, DOE Environmental Management said in a notice published on a federal procurement website.
North Wind Portage has the current $187-million, five-year task order, which is set to expire in September 2021. The work involves moving tailings from the old Atlas Mineral Corp. uranium ore processing site by rail to the Crescent Junction waste disposal facility 30 miles away. Idaho-based North Wind Group acquired industry rival Portage, along with the contract, in January 2017.
In November, DOE started its market research on the next Moab contract by releasing a request for information/sources sought notice for prospective bidders.
The new contract is expected to have an ordering period of 10 years, the department said in the August notice. As is the case with most new remediation procurement these days, the nuclear cleanup office is contemplating an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) agreement that employs the end-state contracting model.
The end state model is designed to speed remediation by steps that include higher potential fees for vendors along with allowing DOE to pick a contractor based on a limited number of tasks — rather than forcing all bidders to submit a detailed plan for the life of the contract.
The Moab contract will be is a 100% small business set-aside. The Energy Department will select a contractor with which it will negotiate milestones for completion.
The Office of Environmental Management does plan pre-solicitation/pre-proposal meetings with prospective vendors, which could occur either virtually or in person based on the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The primary contact on the procurement is DOE Contracting Officer Michael Forsgren, at [email protected].
The Energy Department has said the final Moab RFP could be released by the end of the year.
