A Bechtel-led group, one of four losing bidders for DOE’s Idaho Cleanup Project contract, last week filed a bid protest over the potential 10-year, $6.4-billion nuclear-weapons cleanup pact.
Idaho Remediation LLC filed a protest dated June 15 with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over last month’s award to Idaho Environmental Coalition — made up of Jacobs North Wind Portage and small business teaming subcontractors Navarro, Oak Ridge Technologies and Spectra Tech — were not available. The GAO has a 100-day window to rule on such challenges, which translates to a Sept. 23 deadline.
The same team filed an additional bid protest dated June 21. In essence, the Idaho Remediation protest argues if the evaluation had been done properly itr would have won, according to a source familiar with the process.
Bechtel sent multiple representatives to a site tour and bidder conference on the environmental remediation contract, the bulk of which is held by incumbent Fluor Idaho. In addition to Bechtel, Fluor and Jacobs, some other big names that sent representatives to the meeting include Amentum, Atkins, BWXT, EnergySolutions, Huntington Ingalls and Veolia.
In an exhibit appended to its latest 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Huntington Ingalls Industries listed among its subsidiaries “Idaho Cleanup Completion Partners, LLC.” The LLC was incorporated in Delaware on June 11, 2020, a little less than a month after the DOE solicited bids on the Idaho Cleanup Project contract.
Spectra Tech is the incumbent on a five-year-plus contract now worth $53 million for management of spent fuel from the St. Vrain nuclear reactor in Colorado. The new business rolls up both the Spectra Tech work and the Fluor business, which includes preparation and shipment and transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico as well as bringing online the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit. The Fluor Idaho contract began in June 2016 and its current value is $2.2 billion.
Both of the existing contracts are set to expire in September, barring extensions.
