Following the solicitation of new long-term contracts for its Portsmouth and Paducah sites, the Department of Energy plans to extend the incumbents at both sites for up to six months, according to procurement notes published recently.
In a procurement notice May 27, the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management announced its intent to extend decontamination and decommissioning incumbent Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, in Ohio, to Sept. 30, 2023 from March 29, 2023.
Fluor-BWXT has held the environmental remediation work at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Piketon, Ohio since March 29, 2011. The business is valued at $4.4-billion, according to a May 11 DOE contract document updated on May 11, prior to the sole source extension planned by the agency.
The final request for proposals (RFP) for a new environmental cleanup contract at Portsmouth, potentially worth $5.87-billion over 10 years, was published by DOE last week. Questions on that RFP are due to the agency by June 8 and the deadline for proposals is July 11.
Questions about the planned six-month Portsmouth cleanup extension can be emailed to DOE contracting officer Tyler Hicks, [email protected].
Also on Friday, the agency announced Friday it intends to extend by six months the Depleted Uranium Conversion Facilities Contract held by Mid-America Conversion Services at Portsmouth in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The team of Atkins, Westinghouse and Fluor will now be on the job through late September 2023. Mid-America’s contract began in February 2017, is valued at $703 million and would otherwise expire March 28, 2023.
Questions on the planned six-month extension for Mid-America Conversion Services should be emailed to DOE contracting officer David Senderling, [email protected].
Given that DOE only last week published its final request for proposals (RFP) for what is being called the Portsmouth Paducah Project Office Operations and Site Mission Support Contract, it is unlikely a new contractor could be in place by April 2023.
The new Portsmouth-Paducah contract would combine Mid-America’s depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion with certain operations work now siloed under the site cleanup contractors for Portsmouth and Paducah. It also covers production of uranium hexafluoride at Portsmouth, which DOE’s autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration needs for its ongoing nuclear-weapon refurbishments.
DOE on May 25 made a double-barrel announcement for the final RFPs for both the potential 10-year, $2.9-billion Portsmouth Paducah operations contract as well as the potential 10-year, $5.87-billion Portsmouth Decontamination and Decommissioning Contract.
Neither DOE notice lists the potential value of the planned six-month extensions and the agency did not respond to a Weapons Complex Monitor inquiry.
