The Government Accountability Office on Dec. 21 dismissed an Atkins-led team’s protest of the $45-billion liquid waste cleanup contract the Department of Energy awarded in April to a BWX Technologies-led team.
However, the BWX Technologies team, Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, is still blocked from taking over the cleanup because of a federal lawsuit the AtkinsRéalis Nuclear Secured-led team, Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance, filed in May.
As is typical, the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) announcement did not make public any reasoning for denying the losing bidder’s protest.
GAO’s decision effectively closes one front of the losing bidder’s multi-pronged legal war on the decade-long Hanford Integrated Tank management contract, which covers continuing cleanup of millions of gallons of radioactive liquid waste leftover from making plutonium for nuclear weapons during the Manhattan Project and the Cold War.
Aside from the lawsuit, Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance, which includes Jacobs and Westinghouse, has also filed an agency-level protest with the Department of Energy, which believes it can resolve technical errors with the winning bidder’s proposal that prompted the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to place a hold on the award.
Meanwhile, Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure appealed the claims court’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The team, which also includes Amentum and Fluor faces a Jan. 16 filing deadline in the higher court.
If the impending merger of Amentum with Jacobs’ government contracting business goes through next year as expected, the combined company appears guaranteed to get a slice of the Hanford pie, no matter what DOE and the courts decide.
