A number of companies with broad experience in nuclear and environmental remediation operations sent representatives to a Sept. 16 site visit for the decommissioning procurement for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ retired SM-1 reactor at Fort Belvoir, Va.
Among the participants were Westinghouse, AECOM, Bechtel, APTIM, Atkins, EnergySolutions, Jacobs, and BWX Technologies, according to the list made public on Oct. 16. Of those companies, only BWXT responded to a query by deadline Friday regarding whether it would bid on the contract.
“BWXT generally doesn’t comment on specific contract interests, but I can tell you that we are carefully considering various decommissioning opportunities and pursuing those where our specific experience in nuclear operations and D&D could provide significant benefit to customers,” spokesman Jud Simmons said by email Thursday.
In all, 43 people representing 18 companies and one organization, the Electric Power Research Institute, attended the event. Other participants were largely from smaller companies in the nuclear and environmental sectors, including Los Alamos Technical Associates, ARS Aleut Remediation, Chase Environmental Group, and Tidewater.
The Army Corps issued its request for proposals on Aug. 23. It is giving vendors until Nov. 4 to bid on the contract, with selection anticipated in the second half of 2020. The selected vendor would then have until Sept. 30, 2026, to complete decommissioning and disposal operations for the reactor, covering engineering, construction of a waste storage pad, disposition of Building 372, demolition, and other assignments.
The SM-1 pressurized-water reactor operated from April 1957 to March 1973. It was the initial U.S. nuclear power reactor to support a commercial energy grid on a sustained basis, but was largely employed to train personnel to operate other Army nuclear power plants.
The Fort Belvoir project, about 20 miles from Washington, D.C., is the second of three nuclear decommissioning projects managed by the Army Corps in recent years. The Army Corps has said it anticipates six to eight competitive bidders.
APTIM last year completed decommissioning of the MH-1A reactor on the STURGIS barge. The Army Corps is still planning for procurement on the SM-1A reactor at Fort Greeley, Alaska, with a request for proposals anticipated in 2021.
