Teams vying to take over the Pantex Plant from its Bechtel-led incumbent will get another two weeks to turn in their final bids, the National Nuclear Security Administration said Friday.
The agency extended the deadline for bids on the potentially 20-year contract by two weeks to Sept. 28, according to a procurement notice posted online.
The deal to manage the nuclear-weapons assembly and dismantlement hub in Amarillo, Texas, has a five-year base and three five-year options periods. If the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) exercises all of them, the pact would run for twice as long as most of the active management and operations contracts at the agency’s nuclear-weapon sites. With options, the contract could be worth about $30 billion, according to the request for proposals the NNSA released in July.
Consolidated Nuclear Security, led by Bechtel National, has held a combined management and operating contract for the Pantex Plant and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee since 2012.
After a planned follow-on contract for both sites fell through in 2022, the NNSA decided to revert the weapons-production hubs to separate deals.
NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby has said that the request for proposals for the standalone Y-12 management and operations contract will hit the street roughly a year after the Pantex solicitation.
Consolidated Nuclear Security is under contract at both Pantex and Y-12 through fiscal year 2024. The government holds options to keep CNS at Y-12 through fiscal year 2027 and at Pantex through fiscal year 2025.
