Teams seeking to land a major Department of Energy contract that includes running depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion facilities at former gaseous diffusion plants in Ohio and Kentucky have been asked to keep their bids open through Nov. 17, sources said this week.
Two DOE weapons complex contractor executives and one municipal government official told Exchange Monitor they understand the agency recently asked teams to extend the expiration dates on offers for the Portsmouth / Paducah Project Office (PPPO) Operations and Site Mission Support Contract
Otherwise, offers for the 10-year, $2.9-billion Portsmouth Paducah operations contract would have expired Oct. 31, the sources said. The final request for proposals hit the streets in May 2022 and at that time DOE said it wanted the proposals to stay open 365 days or one year from the submission deadline on July 25, 2022.
There have been a couple of modifications to the due date, one of the contractor executives said, adding that industry chatter has had the new contract in the any-day-now status for months now.
Teams vying for the work are said to include: an Atkins-Westinghouse venture, which amounts to two-thirds of the incumbent; a Bechtel-Amentum team; a Huntington Ingalls-Jacobs team; and a BWXT-Honeywell team.
“Not sure what the holdup is,” said one of the contractors. “Whatever happens, the losers will protest, guaranteed.”
When asked about the bid proposal extension, a DOE spokesperson replied via email that the agency cannot comment on ongoing procurements.
The current contract valued at $788 million is held by Mid-America Conversion Services, a joint venture of Atkins, Westinghouse and Fluor. The contract started in November 2016 and is currently scheduled to expire in January 2024, based upon the latest contract chart from the DOE Office of Environmental Management.
Southern Ohio Cleanup, made up of Amentum, Fluor and Cavendish Nuclear won the Portsmouth $5.9-billion remediation contract in July. The existing contract held by Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth is currently slated to expire Jan. 31.
