The National Nuclear Security Administration has released a draft request for proposals for the next management and operations contract for its Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, while the facility takes steps to address a recent error in shipping special nuclear material, the latest in a series of safety and security issues that have plagued the site.
The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency is inviting prospective bidders to submit questions and other feedback on the draft document by 11 a.m. EDT on July 26, to [email protected]. Responses should be limited to three pages.
The nuclear-weapon laboratory is managed through Sept. 30, 2018, by Los Alamos National Security (LANS), a partnership of Bechtel National, BWX Technologies, the University of California, and AECOM. The deal is worth roughly $2 billion annually, along with performance-based award fees.
The lab has been under scrutiny for a series of operational lapses, most prominently in recent years as the point of origin of an improperly sealed radioactive waste container that burst open at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in 2014, leading to the transuranic waste storage mine’s closure for nearly three years. The lab has since taken steps to improve procedures in various site facilities.
Recently, Los Alamos has begun corrective actions to address a June incident in which it mistakenly shipped special nuclear material by air to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. This kind of shipment (which included 100 grams of plutonium going to Livermore) must go by ground rather than air, according to federal regulations.
The NNSA said no radioactive material was lost and no environmental contamination occurred. Still, agency Administrator Frank Klotz in a statement at the time called it “absolutely unacceptable.” The incident remains under investigation.
A source said this week that lab Director Charles McMillan has announced several initial actions to address the error. These include transferring the responsibility for fissile nuclear material shipping to the lab’s Nuclear and High Hazards Operations Directorate’s Packaging and Transportation Group; creating an engineered control for hazardous shipping labels; and strengthening training to include exercises, mock-ups, and dry runs of tasks.
A laboratory spokesman said all employees involved in the incident, “from the individual contributor level up the management chain have been held accountable through actions that include terminations, suspensions, and compensation consequences.” The Santa Fe New Mexican reported Monday that among those fired was Juan Montoya, a shipping employee at the lab.
The New M&O Contract
None of the current management team has yet confirmed plans to vie for the new contract, either together or in other configurations. The University of California, which before LANS took over in 2006 was for decades the sole prime contractor at the lab, said in a statement Wednesday it would review the draft RFP, and the final document due in September, “to determine how best to proceed in the interests of the University and Los Alamos National Laboratory.”
The draft solicitation indicates the contract would encompass a five-year base period followed by up to five option years. While Los Alamos is a multipurpose research facility, much of the scope of work would likely focus on its national security missions, including: research and development to ensure safe nuclear explosive operations; assuring the safety, security, reliability, and performance of the U.S. nuclear deterrent; and supporting deterrence, detection, and response to WMD proliferation.
The 40-square-mile site employs roughly 11,200 employees, more than 7,000 of whom work for the site contractor.
Proposals will be judged on cost and three technical and management criteria: relevant performance over the preceding five years; key personnel with know-how and experience in overseeing operations of a similar size, scope, and complexity, and in leading organizational culture change; and small business participation.
The first two technical and management criteria are given equal weight, and together are “significantly more important” than small business participation, according to the draft document. In cases where separate bidders offer similar technical and management resources, “the evaluated cost/price is more likely to be a determining factor,” the NNSA said.
