August 2023
Here are some of the contracts the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management recently took action on. The list includes both waste-cleanup contracts and contracts that support those efforts across the DOE weapons complex.
| CARLSBAD FIELD OFFICE | |
| Contract: | Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Transportation Services Acquisition DE-EM0004767 |
| Terms: | IDIQ contract with maximum value of $100 million over the five-year ordering period. |
| Services Provided: | Transport of contact-handled and remote-handled transuranic wastes and mixed hazardous constituents, including polychlorinated biphenyls and asbestos between various DOE sites and WIPP near Carlsbad, N.M.. |
| Status | CAST Specialty Transportation (incumbent) won new contract in June 2022. |
| Comments: | The new five-year, $100-million contract runs through June 16, 2027.
U.S. Department of Energy Carlsbad Field Office Transportation Contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (CAST Specialty Transportation/89303322DEM000076 /
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| IDAHO SITE | |
| Contract: | Idaho Cleanup Project |
| Terms: | Up to 15-year (10-year ordering period) $6.4 billion. |
| Services Provided: | Operation of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, management and disposal of both low-level radioactive and transuranic waste, decommissioning old facilities, and spent fuel management of Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSI), including one away from the lab at the Fort St. Vrain power plant near Platteville, Colo. |
| Status | Idaho Environmental Coalition, LLC (Jacobs, North Wind Portage) awarded contract in May 2021. |
| Comments: | The new contract combines the prior five-year, $2 billion contract held by Fluor Idaho ) with the five-year, $45 million spent fuel management contract held by Spectra Tech. Spectra Tech is a subcontractor for Idaho Environmental Coalition. The contract 89303321DEM000061 runs through September 2031. |
| EM LOS ALAMOS | |
| Contract: | Los Alamos Legacy Cleanup 89303318CEM000007 |
| Terms: | The contract awarded competitively in December 2017, is worth about $1.5 billion, including a five-year base period, one three-year option, and one two-year option. In August 2023 the value is now $1.8 billion. |
| Services Provided: | Cleanup of legacy nuclear waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), including shipment of the lab’s legacy transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. |
| Status | Award announced December 2017. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) took over April 30, 2018. DOE exercised the incumbent’s three-year extension, keeping N3B on the job through April 2026. The updated value is $1.8 billion. |
| Comments: | Cleanup work at LANL previously handled by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s prime contractor for the lab, Los Alamos National Security (LANS). The new contract has been awarded to Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B). The team is comprised of Stoller Newport News Nuclear and BWX Technologies. Key subcontractors are Tech2 Solutions and Longenecker & Associates. In 2015, DOE announced LANS would lose its contract after the 2014 radiation release at WIPP, which was blamed on a container of LANL waste that was not packaged properly. |
| OAK RIDGE SITE | |
| Contract: | Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup Contract 89303322DEM000067 |
| Terms: | United Cleanup Oak Ridge (Amentum, Jacobs and Honeywell International) was awarded a contract in October 2021 with a ceiling of $8.3 billion over 10 years. It took over the remediation contract in May 2022. |
| Services Provided: | The contractor is responsible for environmental clean-up at Oak Ridge, which includes the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). The work includes cleanup of excess facilities at ORNL and Y-12; design, construction, and operation of the new onsite disposal facility, Environmental Management Disposal Facility (EMDF).
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| Status | United Cleanup Oak Ridge began its 90-day transition in February 2022 and took over in May from URS CH2M Oak Ridge. It took over remediation in May 2022. The contract has a 10-year ordering period. |
| Comments: | In late October 2022, the contractor took over management of transuranic waste processing at Oak Ridge from North Wind. |
| OFFICE OF RIVER PROTECTION | |
| Contract: | Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract
89303321REM000084
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| Terms: | In April 2023, DOE awarded the potentially massive contract worth up to $45 billion over 10 years to the Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure team of BWXT, Amentum and Fluor. But a successful contract challenge by an Atkins-led rival put the award on hold. |
| Services Provided: | The contract consolidates management and closure of the 177 underground tanks of radioactive and chemical tank waste with operation of the Waste Immobilization and Treatment Plant (WTP).
The incumbent contract (DE-AC27-01RV14136) for construction of the WTP is held by Bechtel National under business currently valued at $14.7-billion that started in December 2000 and is scheduled to lapse Dec. 31, 2022. The Government Accountability Office has said it expects to extend the Bechtel deal. The incumbent $10-billion contract (DE-AC27-08RV14800) for operation and management of the tanks is held by Washington River Protection Solutions, an Amentum-Atkins partnership. The deal started in October 2008 and is currently scheduled to end in September 2023. |
| Status | In June 2023, a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge said the contract was improperly issued and sent it back to the DOE Office of Environmental Management for reconsideration. |
| Comments: | The contract dispute involving the feds, the winning contractor and losing rival Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance, a team of Atkins Nuclear, Jacobs and Westinghouse, is headed toward the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Meanwhile, given the ongoing court fight, DOE plans to extend Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions through September 2025. |
| PORTSMOUTH/PADUCAH PROJECT OFFICE | |
| Contract: | Technical Support Services.
Enterprise Technical Assistance Services (Pro2Serve unit) 89303319CEM00005 |
| Terms: | Five-year performance period, including a three-year base period and one two-year option. Currently valued at $162 million. |
| Services Provided: | Administrative services and technical engineering services for the prime uranium-enrichment cleanup contractors at the Portsmouth and Paducah sites as well as the project office in Lexington, Ky. |
| Status: | E-TAS took over the contract for technical support services for Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office in April 2020from three individual small business providers following bid protests from one of them. |
| Comments: | E-TAS is a small business. The base period of the contract ends March 31, 2023. |
| RICHLAND OPERATIONS OFFICE | |
| Contract: | Office of Environmental Management Richland Operations Office Richland
Occupational Medical Services contract (OccMed) 89303919DEM000005 was awarded to incumbent HPM Corp. in December 2018.
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| Terms: | Potential 7-year, $152-million contract. |
| Services Provided: | Occupational medical services for some 8,000-plus workers at DOE’s Hanford site near Richland, Wash. |
| Status | DOE Environmental Management picked up the first two-year option on the contract in December 2021. HPM is ensured of staying onsite through December 2023. The agency started its market research on a potential follow-on contract in July 2022. |
| Comments: | HPM has been at the center of Hanford’s workforce health efforts during the coronavirus pandemic. But the contractor in March 2022 agreed to pay a $3 million fine for making false statements to the federal government when it sought to obtain a COVID-19-related loan from the Small Business Administration.
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| SAVANNAH RIVER SITE WASTE | |
| Contract: | Savannah River Site Integrated Mission Completion(BWXT, Fluor, Amentum)89303322DEM000068 |
| Terms: | Potentially $21 billion over 10 years. |
| Services Provided: | Liquid waste cleanup at the Savannah River Site, including closure of old tanks at the F- and H-Area Tank Farms, operation of the glass-producing Defense Waste Processing Facility for high-level waste, and operation of the future Salt Waste Processing Facility, which is being built under a separate contract. |
| Status | Contract was awarded in October 2021 and is scheduled to run until late October 2031.
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| Comments: | This is the follow-on to the prior Savannah River Liquid Waste Program contract (DE-AC09-09SR22505) held by Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation. |
| SAVANNAH RIVER SITE OPERATIONS | |
| Contract: | Savannah River Site Management and OperationsSavannah River Nuclear Solutions(Fluor, Newport News Nuclear, Honeywell International) |
| Terms: | Current contract has been in place since August 2008 and and valued at $17.8 billion. |
| Services Provided: | Operations of the 310 square mile DOE complex in the sand-hills region of South Carolina, which ncompasses parts of Aiken, Barnwell and Allendale counties and is bordered on the west by the Savannah River and Georgia. |
| Status | While the current SRNS contract is scheduled to end Sept. 30, 2022, the DOE announced in July that it expects to extend the incumbent contractor through September 2026. |
| Comments: | The Savannah River Site is currently run by the DOE Office of Environmental Management, but over time that authority will eventually shift to the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. For the time being, however, the status quo and SRNS remain in place. |
Sources: DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center, and original reporting.