Chris Schneidmiller
WC Monitor
1/8/2016
The operator of the depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion (DUF6) plants at Paducah, Ky., and Portsmouth, Ohio, has received a contract extension of up to nine months, the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management announced in late December.
BWXT Conversion Services’ contract update is worth up to $68 million. Extending the contract, which was due to lapse on Saturday, “is intended to accommodate DOE’s competitive procurement process for a new DUF6 Operations contract,” according to a DOE EM press release. “This action will allow the Department’s selection, award and transition to the new contract to occur without interruptions of ongoing services.”
The next contract is due to be awarded by the fourth quarter of the current federal budget year, which ends on Sept. 30, a DOE spokesperson said by email.
The plants are processing over 700,000 metric tons of DUF6 produced during decades of uranium enrichment at the DOE’s Paducah and Portsmouth now-shuttered gaseous diffusion facilities. They had converted 54,209 metric tons into depleted uranium oxide and hydrofluoric acid as of Dec. 13, 2015. The oxide will be stored for later disposal or reuse while the acid is sold for industrial use, according to the company.
BWXT Conversion Services’ contract covers running the two plants and ongoing surveillance and maintenance of the steel cylinders that contain the DUF6. Conversion began in July 2010 at Portsmouth and is expected to conclude around 2032, while operations started in February 2011 at Paducah and are anticipated to wrap up in 2044.
The new contract, according to the final request for proposals, would cover a five-year period and include both cost-plus-award-fee and firm-fixed-price line items. While a dollar amount has not been set, the contract is projected to be worth between $400 million and $600 million, the DOE spokesperson said. The current contract prior to the extension was valued at $417.8 million. The life-cycle cost for the program is roughly $4 billion in “constant dollars without contingency,” the official said.
The department said it could not disclose the number of proposals it has received regarding the new contract. BWXT spokesman Jud Simmons confirmed Thursday that the company intends to compete for the next contract, but said he had no information on the potential competition.
