PHOENIX — Jeff Avery, No. 2 boss at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, said Tuesday he understands industry frustration over the slow pace of big industry procurements.
“Here’s what I can tell you about some of the extended procurement experiences,” Avery told Exchange Monitor during an interview on the sidelines of the Waste Management Symposia. “I know there is frustration with how long some of this is taking.”
The process can take longer than either industry and DOE want, Avery said.
At the same time, it is important for The Office of Environmental Management (EM) to approach procurements deliberately while learning how to run solicitations better, Avery said.
The EM No. 2 was responding to an Exchange Monitor question about the long-delayed award of the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office’s Operations and Site Mission Support contract.
It has been 22 months since DOe put out the final request for proposals for the $2.9-billion, decade-long contract, which rolls up some site management duties at both sites with depleted uranium hexafluoride cleanup (DUF6) now done by Portsmouth-Paducah incumbent Mid-America Conversion Services.
DOE announced just after Christmas it was adding six more months onto the existing DUF6 contract, extending the deal to September 2024.
In recent weeks, some in industry have told the Exchange Monitor that they expect DOE to tack on an even longer extension to Mid-America’s $788-million contract, which started in November 2016.
DOE is also extending the current decommissioning contract held by Fluor-BWXT at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio.
Complicating matters is DOE’s June 2023 award of a successor decontamination and decommissioning contract to Amentum-led Southern Ohio Cleanup. Ten months later, DOE has not issued the incoming contractor a notice to proceed because some of the Portsmouth work affecting utilities, emergency management and security is tied to the still-unawarded Portsmouth-Paducah Operations and Site Mission Support contract.
