The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday officially issued up to one-year contract extensions for waste tank and Central Plateau cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
The previously announced extensions will be worth $665 million for AECOM-led Washington River Protection Solutions and $500 million to Jacobs subsidiary CH2M Plateau Remediation, DOE said. The figures are based on the vendors working through Sept. 30, 2020, although the agency hopes to issue new 10-year contracts before then.
The tank operations business has been worth nearly $7 billion since WRPS began work in October 2008. Plateau remediation is valued at almost $6 billion for CH2M over the same time period.
The Energy Department issued requests for proposals for new contracts in February. The new tank contract could be worth up to $15 billion over 10 years, while the new Central Plateau award could be worth up to $12 billion over a decade.
Without the extensions the current contracts would end today, an Energy Department spokesman noted in an email.
Word of an extension first circulated via an Energy Department email to Hanford employees in early August. The DOE Office of Environmental Management on Aug. 13 filed formal notices of intent to extend both contracts.
In both cases the incumbents are uniquely qualified to continue uninterrupted service on important environmental work, the Energy Department said.
Comprised of AECOM and Atkins, WPRS manages 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste in underground storage, which is left over from decades of plutonium production at Hanford.
The Central Plateau Remediation Contract requires CH2M to remove high-hazard wastes streams and clean up contaminated groundwater plumes before they reach the Columbia River. It also includes decommissioning and tearing down the Plutonium Finishing Plant.
