Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
11/21/2014
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.–As the Department of Energy works to finalize a plan to shift management of the remaining legacy cleanup work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Office of Environmental Management from the National Nuclear Security Administration, DOE has not yet decided whether the final plan will be publicly released, acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Mark Whitney said here this week. “I don’t know if it’s going to be released publicly. What I can tell you is that a lot of work has been done by this team that has been working on this,” Whitney said at the ETEBA Business Opportunities Conference. “We have developed a good process for moving forward. What I know that we need to do moving forward is make sure we communicate with folks. That means folks in the community, folks in the contractor community, our Congressional representatives and delegations. I don’t know if that means releasing the plan publicly.”
The transition plan was due to DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz on Nov. 14 and is expected to be finalized soon. Currently cleanup work at Los Alamos is managed by the NNSA’s Los Alamos Field Office but funded by EM. However, after pressure from New Mexico for the change, in late September DOE established working groups to develop a plan for the transition of legacy cleanup work to contracts managed by EM. “This change will align the focus and accountability of the cleanup with EM and enable the Los Alamos site prime contractor, Los Alamos National Security (LANS), to continue its focus on the core national security missions at the site,” Whitney said in September when DOE announced the transition.
LANL Director: DOE Will Soon Release Its Plan
Also this week, LANL Director Charlie McMillan told employees that “DOE will soon release its plan” for transition of management of the remaining legacy cleanup work. “We remain committed to working closely with DOE-Environmental Management, NNSA and the Field Office as well as the State of New Mexico. We appreciate your patience and support as we work through these challenging issues,” McMillan said in the Nov. 17 message to LANL employees.
Draft Plan Calls for 18-to-24 Month Transition
DOE anticipates needing 18-to-24 months to have new “incentive-based” cleanup contracts in place for the lab, according to an Oct. 29 draft version of the plan obtained by WC Monitor. The draft transition plan envisions a continued near-term role for Los Alamos National Security, LLC, the lab’s managing contractor, in performing cleanup work, though DOE is considering a sole-source contracting arrangement with another firm if an agreement can’t be reached with LANS. DOE would also create a separate EM field office at Los Alamos (EMLA), which could be in place as early as January, according to the draft transition plan.
To aid in the acquisition planning for the new Los Alamos cleanup contracts, EM plans to “non-competitively” award by the end of 2015 a small business contract to cover activities such as evaluation of acquisition alternatives, development of an acquisition strategy and scope statements, according to the draft plan. EM also plans to compete and award before the end of Fiscal Year 2015 a separate architecture and engineering contract to help “guide” the remaining Los Alamos legacy cleanup.
