The Department of Energy on Thursday released a draft request for proposals for the Hanford Site Central Plateau Cleanup Contract that takes a new approach to the scope of work at the cleanup job in Washington state. The agency is asking bidders to indicate what environmental cleanup activities they could complete given 10 years, including an option period.
The estimated value of the upcoming contract is $6.5 billion. The Energy Department anticipates awarding a contract that includes cost-reimbursement, cost-plus-incentive-fee, and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity line items. The winning contractor would be required to subcontract at least 25 percent of the total estimated cost of the award; at least 60 percent of the subcontracted work would be required to go to small businesses.
A DOE presolicitation conference, including a site tour and one-on-one meetings with interested parties, is scheduled for the week of Oct. 15. Comments on the draft RFP are due by Oct. 24.
CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., owned by Jacobs Engineering, currently holds a 10-year contract for central Hanford cleanup work valued at $5.8 billion plus $1.3 billion of economic stimulus work. The deal was set to expire Saturday, but this week DOE finalized a one-year extension through fiscal 2019 to give the department more time to award the follow-on contract. The contract modification document said that in advance of negotiation of estimated cost and fee for the extension period, the estimated cost of the contract is increased by $500 million for fiscal 2019.
The draft RFP had been structured to award a contract that will significantly reduce risk and environmental liability to accelerate cleanup of Hanford, according to the cover letter for the document. “The contractor is responsible for proposing the specific end states to be completed and accomplishing the work to meet those end states, including the specific methods and innovations,” the letter said.
Environmental remediation of the Central Plateau is primarily overseen by DOE’s Richland Operations Office. The area encompasses onetime plutonium fuel processing plants, waste disposal operations, the
The cleanup “end states” the contractor picks to achieve within a decade could include decontamination and demolition of facilities and remediation of waste sites; management of transuranic waste; preparation of legally required decision documents to support cleanup actions associated with the Tri-Party Agreement and closure of underground waste storage tanks.
