After much anticipation, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Thursday awarded a potentially 10-year, $6.4 billion cleanup contract at the Idaho National Laboratory to the Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition.
The team, chosen from a field of five bidders, includes Dallas-based Jacobs, North Wind Portage, and small business teaming subcontractors Navarro, Oak Ridge Technologies and Spectra Tech, the Office of Environmental Management said in a press release.
Fluor Idaho, which is the incumbent for the bulk of the current Idaho Cleanup Project that covers protection of a major regional aquifer, completion of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) and shipment of transuranic waste, declined comment Friday morning. Fluor Idaho’s current $2.2-billion contract began in June 2016 and is currently scheduled to end Sept. 30.
The replacement agreement is an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract that follows the agency’s end state model to hasten measurable progress toward final cleanup. The agreement combines the current Fluor cleanup with the existing five-plus year Spectra Tech contract worth $53 million for management of spent fuel facilities licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That includes the dry storage pad at the retired Fort St. Vrain reactor in Colorado.
It was unknown at press time when the DOE debrief sessions might occur for the bidding teams. Back in February 2020, a briefing on the request for proposals attracted dozens of people including representatives from many big players in the DOE weapons complex: Amentum, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, EnergySolutions, Jacobs, Navarro, North Wind Group, Veolia, and Westinghouse among others.
“Jacobs welcomes the opportunity to partner with DOE to advance the restoration of the ICP [Idaho Cleanup Project] to beneficial reuse for the INL and Idaho Falls community,” Karen Wiemelt, a senior vice president for Jacobs Critical Mission Solutions, North American Nuclear business segment, said in a press release.
Idaho-based North Wind Group said in a press release that it has supported DOE’s cleanup mission at Idaho National Laboratory since the company’s founding in 1997.
“North Wind has deep roots in Idaho, is committed to the safety and wellbeing of the [Idaho Cleanup Project] workforce and is excited to partner with DOE to further the cleanup mission at [the Idaho Cleanup Project] and restore this area we call home,” said North Wind president and CEO Chris Leichtweis in the release.
Union workers make up about 43% of the 1,900 environmental remediation jobs on the project and the new contract “ensures workers have the right to organize, join a union, and bargain collectively with their employers,” DOE said in the press release.
