In its last year on the job, National Security Technologies (NSTec) was praised for smooth handling of capital projects at the Energy Department’s Nevada National Security Site, including its work to solidify designs for a new underground, non-explosive weapons-testing facility.
National Security Technologies in 2017 wrapped up its management of the Nevada National Security Site for DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The company’s contract, awarded in 2006 and worth more than $5.5 billion with options, expired in November. Formerly known as the Nevada Test Site, the Nevada National Security Site’s mission includes helping to ensure the U.S. nuclear stockpile’s destructive potency.
NSTec received about 95 percent of the total available fees for fiscal 2017, which ended on Sept. 30: just short of $31 million. A little under 20 percent of the total available was a fixed fee. Of the available award fee, which is subject to the government’s judgment, the contractor received nearly 94 percent, or almost $26 million. That is according to a performance evaluation report dated Nov. 20 and published online Jan. 18.
Among other things, the NNSA praised National Security Technologies for its work on the U1a Complex Enhancement Project, which will result in a new underground testing laboratory to be built by the new site contractor: the Honeywell-led Mission Support and Test Services.
In fiscal 2017, National Security Technologies brought the U1a Complex Enhancement Project to the project management milestone known as Critical Decision-1. At DOE, that means choosing a set of capabilities, though not literal designs, from among several alternatives to satisfy some already-identified mission need. In this case, the NNSA national labs’ need to evaluate the fitness of U.S. nuclear warheads.
The NNSA anticipates completing construction on the U1a Complex Enhancement Project by March 2023, at a cost of almost $160 million over nine years. That could change this year, when the agency is set to complete a formal baseline that will establish detailed cost and schedule estimates for the project.
National Security Technologies was led by Northrop Grumman, with CH2M Hill, AECOM, and BWX Technologies. Mission Support and Test Services took over management of the Nevada facility in December under a site management and operations contract worth about $5 billion over 10 years, including options.
