Industry will get its first look at the draft solicitation for a long-term, $1 billion-plus contract for legacy nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory from June 7-9, when the Department of Energy plans to host potential bidders for a tour of the 70 year-old nuclear-weapons research and development facility, along with one-on-one talks with DOE officials.
The tour of the New Mexico site is set for June 7, with a pre-solicitation conference to follow June 8 in nearby Pojoaque, N.M. During the conference, “DOE will provide a detailed overview of the Draft Request for Proposal,” reads a procurement note posted online May 10 by the agency’s waste-cleanup procurement hub, the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center.
One-on-one sessions between prospective bidders and DOE officials will follow on June 9, the procurement note says. Those interested in attending must email DOE by May 31, the agency wrote in the note.
Industry representatives were mostly mum about whether they would attend.
A Bechtel spokesperson wrote in a Thursday email, “we generally don’t talk about who we send to the various events like these. And like all opportunities, we will carefully evaluate the draft before making a decision.”
A CH2M spokesperson wrote Thursday that “we believe that BWXT’s experience in environmental remediation could be a good match for the work to be performed under this contract, but it’s too early in the process for us to discuss any of our specific plans.”
Representatives for AECOM and Fluor Corp. did not reply to requests for comment.
Legacy waste cleanup at LANL, which among other things involves managing the high-profile transuranic waste pile at the 63-acre Area G, is currently handled by lab prime Los Alamos National Security (LANS) under a two-year, sole-source bridge contract worth about $310 million. The deal expires Sept. 30, 2017.
That work, once bundled in with LANS’ lab management and operations contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration, is going back out to open competition now even as the agency puts the prime contract up for bid as well. The consortium — led by Bechtel and the University of California — has held the M&O contract since 2006; it will expire in 2018, several years short of the potential end date set a decade ago.
DOE shifted responsibility for the Los Alamos legacy cleanup from NNSA to the department’s Office of Environmental Management after a 2014 radiation release at the underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., was traced to an improperly sealed waste container that originated at LANL Area G.
EM has yet to finalize the terms of the permanent LANL cleanup contract, but the office was considering a five-year deal when it announced late last year its would re-compete the work.
