The Department of Energy expects in September to again issue a new contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a senior procurement official said Tuesday. This will be the department’s second attempt to seal the deal, after the first contract was successfully protested to the Government Accountability Office.
“I don’t think we are going to make the award in August, it’s going to be more like September,” said Norbert Doyle, acting deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and project management in DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM).
In October 2017, DOE awarded a $4.7 billion contract to Savannah River EcoManagement, a partnership of BWX Technologies, Bechtel National, and Honeywell. The two other bidding teams both filed protests with the GAO, one of which was upheld.
This spring, DOE received revised proposals from the three bidding teams, including a Fluor-Westinghouse venture and an AECOM-CH2M team. All contained significant changes from the first proposals, which requires more review by the agency, Doyle said during an event in Washington, D.C., on doing business with the nuclear cleanup office.
AECOM-led Savannah River Remediation continues to handle SRS liquid waste management under a $432 million contract extension through March 2019.
Meanwhile, EM and DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) are collaborating on plans for a long-term management and operations contract for the Savannah River Site, Doyle said.
The Environmental Management office is the official owner of the contract, but the official leading the selection committee for the site’s next management award comes from the NNSA, the department’s nuclear stockpile steward. Doyle did not identify the NNSA official.
Tuesday’s event came one day after DOE issued a one-year, $1-billion management contract extension for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS). The current 10-year, $9.5 billion contract for Fluor-led SRNS was scheduled to expire Tuesday.
The Energy Department still has not issued a draft request for proposals for the next contract. “We would have made July” before the decision was made to hold a technical workshop for prospective bidders first, Doyle said. The workshop is scheduled for today in Augusta, Ga. The agency hopes to issue the draft RFP within the next couple months, Doyle said.
