The Department of Energy Tuesday awarded a joint venture led by Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Navarro Research and Engineering a $389-million contract to run the 222-S Laboratory at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration is a team of Navarro and Advanced Technologies and Laboratories International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Planned Systems International, Inc., a small business supporting DOE, Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration. Maryland-based Amentum is a subcontractor with the winning team, a spokesman for that major DOE contractor said.
The new 222-S Laboratory contractor will have the sole responsibility to run the facility located in the 200 West Area of the Hanford Site. The laboratory’s chief mission is providing analytical support for storage and treatment of tank waste leftover from decades of plutonium production at Hanford.
The new deal could potentially run for seven years, with a five-year base and two one-year options. It will replace two existing contracts: the first, a laboratory analysis and testing contract, is now held by Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal, which bought original contractor Wastren Advantage. That deal started in September 2015, runs through Sept. 2021 and is worth roughly $53-million.
The second is held by Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions, which directs laboratory operations under its $7.8-billion tank management prime contract that started in October 2008 and is scheduled to run through Sept. 30, 2021.
Both existing deals have out clauses allowing the contracts to end early in order to line up with the transition to the new contractor.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management decided early in the procurement process it wanted a single team in charge of the 222-S Laboratory, this time around.
The department issued its request for proposals for the new laboratory contract in February 2019, at around the same time it solicited proposals for Hanford site services and Hanford Central Plateau remediation. The latter contracts were awarded in December and, following unsuccessful bid protests by rivals, are now starting to transition from the current contractor.
“Navarro is very pleased to have received this award, we look forward to providing excellence in services to DOE in support of the Hanford Mission,” said Navarro President Susana Navarro.
Navarro is also in charge of DOE’s environmental work at the Nevada National Security Site.
With this latest award, four major new contracts have been rolled out by DOE at Hanford since last December.
Two of the four joint ventures have already received a green light to start transition, one contract award appears in doubt, and the latest to the Navarro-led group could still be protested to the Government Accountability Office.
Any rival team has 10 days to file a bid protest after learning of any alleged Department of Energy error resulting in the award to Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration. Such a move typically happens within a few days after losing teams are debriefed on the award.
The debriefings are expected the week of Oct. 12, an industry source said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, started its 120-day transition Aug. 17 to become the new support services provider at the site. The new team comprises Leidos and Centerra (which make up the incumbent vendor) along with Parsons. The process is supposed to be complete Dec. 15.
In addition, on Monday, Amentum-led Central Plateau Cleanup Co., is scheduled to start its 60-day transition to replace Jacobs subsidiary CH2M as chief remediation contractor at Hanford’s central plateau. Fluor and Atkins are the other two members of the new Central Plateau Cleanup team. Hanford has separate contracts for this waste, and the liquid waste in the tank farms.
For the next tank farm prime, the future is uncertain.
After a bid protest, DOE attorneys revealed in documents obtained by Weapons Complex Monitor that the agency may reconsider an award to BWX Technologies-led Hanford Works Restoration, which in May won a multibillion-dollar contract to oversee about 56 million gallons of radioactive tank waste.
The current tank manager, Washington River Protection Solutions, remains on the job while that situation plays out. The DOE said recently the incumbent tank manager would receive an extension of up to one year, through September 2021. Its last one-year extension was worth about $630-million.
