Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
6/27/2014
As the Department of Energy begins moving forward with a procurement for a new contract to operate the Oak Ridge Transuranic Waste Processing Center, incumbent Wastren Advantage Inc. won’t be able to lead a bid to maintain the work due to the company’s size. WAI, which has managed the facility since early 2010, exceeds the $35.5 million size standard DOE has said it plans to use in the procurement for the follow-on contract, President and CEO Steve Moore confirmed this week. “We have a strong team together with a solid approach and I’m confident we’ll put a good proposal together at TWPC. We’ll just be a sub going forward and hope to continue to support this important project for EM [the DOE Office of Environmental Management],” Moore told WC Monitor this week.
When asked this week why DOE chose to use the $35.5 million size standard for the procurement, DOE Oak Ridge spokesman Mike Koentop said, “Our market research showed that two or more small businesses were deemed capable of performing the required scope; therefore the solicitation was set-aside for small business. We are confident in the process and will ensure work continues uninterrupted.”
WAI isn’t the first incumbent at the TWPC to be blocked from bidding on follow-on contracts because of its size. In 2008, then-incumbent EnergX filed two unsuccessful challenges with the Small Business Administration’s over DOE’s plans then to use an $11.5 million size standard in a procurement for a new contract at the facility. While EnergX later joined WAI’s team bidding on the contract, in 2009 it again challenged the size standard in a protest to the Government Accountability Office—a protest EnergX subsequently dropped. Moore said this week that WAI does not plan to challenge the size standard DOE intends to use in the new procurement. WAI recompeted EnergX’s scope when it received a contract extension at the TWPC two years ago, and EnergX is no longer part of WAI’s team. EnergX President and Chief Executive Tony Buhl did not respond to calls for comment this week as to whether or not EnergX plans to lead a bid for the new TWPC contract.
The TWPC is used to prepare contact- and remote-handled transuranic waste at Oak Ridge for off-site disposal. Late last week, DOE issued a presolicitation notice for the new planned contract to manage the facility, saying a draft Request for Proposals is expected to be issued for industry comment within the next 30 days. The new contract is set to run for up to five years, consisting of a three-year base period and a two-year option period, and will have firm fixed-provide contract line items and one cost-plus-award-fee CLIN. WAI’s contract is set to expire in January 2015.
DOE Also Looking at $35.5M Standard for New DUF6 Contract
Meanwhile, DOE is also looking at using the $35.5 million size standard for another facility operations contract, this time potentially to manage the Department’s two depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plants. This week, DOE issued a sources sought notice and a draft performance work statement to begin gather information to help determine if the planned follow-on DUF6 contract should be set-aside for small businesses; currently the facilities are being managed by B&W Conversion Services under a contract set to end on Jan. 1, 2016. DOE also said in its notice this week that it anticipates all or some of the work in the follow-on contract to be performed on a fixed price basis, asking interested companies to identify “pricing challenges and risks associated with a fixed price arrangement.” Capability statements from interested companies are due by July 7.
