Two Department of Energy contracts held by subsidiaries of Idaho-based North Wind Group, together valued at over $277 million, are due to expire by the end of this year.
North Wind Solutions has a $232 million contract to operate the Transuranic Waste Processing Center at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The five-year contract, which began in October 2015, will expire Oct. 26.
North Wind prepares and ships transuranic waste from Oak Ridge to the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Most of the waste comes from cleanup and operations at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The company is winding down a two-year extension to the original three-year base period. The Energy Department has yet to issue any draft request for proposals for a new contract.
That situation also applies to a TRU-related agreement held by another North Wind subsidiary. Prior to being bought by North Wind in 2017, Portage won the $45.5 million contract to provide technical assistance to the Energy Department office that oversees WIPP. The business is scheduled to expire Dec. 20. The company began working on the five-year contract in November 2015, according to the DOE major contract roundup published March 26.
The company provides quality assurance, technical oversight, and administrative operations support to various facets of the Carlsbad Field Office operations.
The firm has done detailed audits and surveillance to ensure generators of transuranic waste comply with WIPP acceptance criteria that were toughened after a February 2014 radiation accident that essentially forced WIPP to suspend operations for about three years.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management issued a request for information/sources sought notice in August 2019.
