The Department of Energy last week issued Amentum-led United Cleanup Oak Ridge its 90-day notice-to-proceed on its potential $8.3-billion, long-term Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract in Tennessee, a DOE spokesperson said this week in an email.
The actual transition begins for United Cleanup Oak Ridge (UCOR), made up of Amentum, Jacobs and Honeywell, on Feb. 28, according to DOE. As a result, it should take over from the old UCOR — URS/CH2M Hill Oak Ridge — around May 29. Since the incumbent won its existing $4.2 billion Oak Ridge remediation contract in August 2011, URS was purchased by what is now Amentum and CH2M was bought by Jacobs.
The notice to proceed comes days after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) rejected a contract challenge by the Veolia-led Oak Ridge Environmental Partners on Feb. 1.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the contract award in late October to the new UCOR, which also includes teaming subcontractors RSI EnTech, Strata-G, Longnecker & Associates and Environmental Alternatives. The agency published its request for proposals in December 2020. The DOE selected the new UCOR over four other contractor proposals.
The new contractor and its workforce of roughly 2,000 people will be charged with Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the East Tennessee Technology Park, previously known as the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant complex, where building demolition has already been completed.
The work will include operation of a new onsite low-level radioactive waste landfill, the Environmental Management Disposal Facility, to replace the existing one that is almost filled, as well as operation of a new mercury treatment facility and decontamination and decommissioning of excess nuclear facilities.
The new indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract gives DOE the option to add on an additional five-year period at the end of the term to give the new team a total of 15 years on the job.
