Critical Applications Alliance (CAA), a venture comprised of two Houston companies, has won a $135 million contract to build a new permanent ventilation system at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M.
The award to the team of Christensen Building Group and Kilgore Industries was announced Nov. 19 by the Energy Department and its WIPP contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP).
“This is an extremely important day for us,” NWP President and Project Manager Bruce Covert said in a press release. “After an exhaustive and thorough procurement process, we believe CAA is the right contractor to undertake the largest construction project at WIPP in almost three decades.”
The overall ventilation project entails construction of surface structures including a salt reduction building, a new filter building, and diesel-powered electric generators. The project will also include sinking a new underground shaft, for which a contractor has not yet been announced.
The Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System, as it is known officially, should boost airflow to the underground transuranic waste disposal site from the current level of 170,000 cubic feet per minute to 540,000 cubic feet per minute. This would enable WIPP to resume simultaneous waste emplacement and salt mining operations, which it has not done since a February 2014 underground radiation release took the facility offline for about three years.
Nuclear Waste Partnership will oversee the work by Carlsbad-based CAA.
The entire ventilation project is valued at about $288 million and is expected to be completed in 2021.
The Christensen website says the company has completed a variety of industrial infrastructure projects over the years. Kilgore has built some of the most advanced heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems in the United States, according to its website.
The Energy Department and Nuclear Waste Partnership have already awarded several smaller ventilation-related contracts, for industrial-size fans and a salt reduction facility, said NWP spokesman Donavan Mager by email. He did not immediately respond to a question on how much the smaller subcontracts are each worth.
Encorus Group of Springville, N.Y., is making six exhaust fan assemblies for the ventilation system. The subcontractor for the motors and fans is Clarage Industrial Fans & Services, a branch of Twin City Fan Companies in Pulaski, Tenn. The giant fans will draw air through the salt reduction building on the surface.
Colorado-based IONEX Research Corp. is making 22 high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter housings for the filter building. Encorus and IONEX are the general contractors for the salt reduction facility and ventilation filter building.
