The current liquid waste management contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will be kept on past the expiration of its current contract extension on March 31, the Department of Energy said Wednesday, a day after announcing it had canceled the procurement for a follow-on contract.
AECOM-led Savannah River Remediation is working under a third piecemeal extension since its original $5 billion, eight-year contract ended in June 2017. The Energy Department is looking to bridge the interim period between the end of March and whenever a new vendor is selected for a combined nuclear material and liquid waste contract.
If DOE wants the liquid waste contract to include operation of the L-Basin, used to hold spent fuel assemblies from research reactors, along with H-Canyon, a hardened nuclear chemical separations plant, this could be a long extension, sources said Wednesday. The Energy Department said Tuesday it will not reissue a multibillion-dollar, 10-year SRS liquid waste contract initially awarded in October 2017.
In addition to AECOM, SRR consists of Bechtel, CH2M, and BWX Technologies. When DOE began the new procurement in 2016, the SRR teams split into two camps.
In October 2017, DOE awarded a new $4.7 billion contract to Savannah River EcoManagement, led by BWXT and featuring Bechtel and Honeywell. However, an AECOM-CH2M team won a bid protest the following February. In spring 2018, the Energy Department sought updated offers from those two teams and the other bidder, Fluor-Westinghouse.
The bidders did not say much publicly after the cancellation. Bechtel called the decision “disappointing,” but added it will still work with the DOE on its revised plans at SRS. Likewise, Fluor said it will continue to work with DOE in the weapons complex. AECOM and BWXT declined comment.
One industry lamented DOE canceled this contract so close to the finish line. It is safe to assume each team spent millions of dollars, and tied up key personnel for years, in pursuit of business that did not materialize. “It’s frustrating,” he said.
