Whoever next manages the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, could hold the job for 20 years under a contract worth up to $30 billion now that a final pair of five-year options periods have been approved by senior officials.
A final request for proposals (RFP) for a new management contract at Pantex, the NNSA’s primary nuclear weapon manufacturing facility, was released on July 14. Responses to the RFP are due by 4 p.m. on Sept. 14.
A draft solicitation released in April included a five-year base period with three five-year option periods, the last two of which were listed as “pending approval.” Both of those option periods are listed in the final RFP without qualification.
The total estimated budget for the site through the entire 20-year contract period is more than $30 billion, according to information published with the draft RFP. The contractor’s fee schedule is not yet determined.
Consolidated Nuclear Security holds the management and operating contract for the Pantex Plant and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. NNSA is now making separate management contracts for both sites. The RFP prescribes a four-month transition period to a new contractor with a cost-reimbursement cap of $13 million for setting up shop.
Representatives from 25 companies attended a site visit in early May. The list of attendees is a who’s-who of NNSA and defense contractors. Among them were Fluor and Amentum, which in 2021 teamed to win a contract to manage both Pantex and Y-12 before NNSA scrapped the deal in favor of splitting the sites up again.
Both Huntington Ingalls Industry Nuclear, which builds both nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers for the Navy, and naval nuclear reactor manufacturer BWX Technologies visited the site in May. Other attendees included General Dynamics Information Technology, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), Bechtel, Honeywell, Leidos, Edgewater Federal Solutions and Akima.
According to NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby, the options required the signature of the secretary of energy and possibly other federal officials before they could make it into the NNSA’s final Pantex request for proposals (RFP).
Whichever company takes home the contract will manage more than 4,200 employees on a total 18,000 acres near the Texas Panhandle city of Amarillo.
Nuclear weapons are maintained, modified, assembled and taken apart within Pantex’s 650 or so buildings. The site also includes its own water treatment plant, sewer system and steam generation facility and five wind turbines, all of which will fall under new contractor management.
