A draft request for proposals for a new cleanup contract at the U.S. Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) could be released within weeks, according to a new procurement notice.
The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management said in a Dec. 11 notice on a federal procurement website that the draft document should be issued within 15 to 45 days.
The new agreement would succeed the existing five-year, $1.9-billion contract held by Fluor Idaho, which is scheduled to expire on May 31, 2021. The incumbent vendor did not respond to an inquiry regarding whether it will bid for the follow-on award.
The agency plans a presolicitation site tour and one-on-one meetings with prospective industry bidders sometime in January or February. An exact date had not been set as of Thursday evening.
The vendor will focus on eventual closure of the lab’s Radioactive Waste Management Complex, completing the shipment of transuranic waste out of state, treatment of sodium-bearing and calcine waste at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, spent fuel management and disposition, and facility decontamination and decommissioning.
The Idaho “core” cleanup project, as it is sometimes called, centers on protecting the Snake River Plain Aquifer, the primary source of drinking water for much of eastern Idaho.
The new Idaho Cleanup Project contract would also include some work for Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed facilities that are managed by Spectra Tech under a five-year, $45 million contract that expires in March 2021. That work includes management and operation of the Three Mile Island 2 spent nuclear fuel storage facility at the lab.
The Energy Department said in its latest cleanup procurement timeline in May that a draft solicitation on a new contract could be issued in August and be worth between $3 billion and $6 billion. In April, the agency issued a sources sought/request for information notice in part to determine whether small businesses could do some or all of the work handled by Fluor Idaho.
The Idaho Cleanup Project contract will be subject to a full and open competition, the Energy Department said.
Preliminary questions can be directed to DOE Contracting Officer Lori Sehlhorst, at [email protected].
The INL remediation contract does not cover physical security for the Fort St. Vrain nuclear plant’s independent spent fuel storage installation in Colorado. The Energy Department manages defense-related spent fuel at St. Vrain, which eventually will be shipped from Colorado to INL. The project will remain a small business set-aside procurement, DOE said.
Spectra Tech subcontracts the security work to Oak Ridge, Tenn.,-based Protection Strategies Inc.
