Final solicitations for operations and transportation contracts at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., could be out as soon as May, the agency said Thursday.
In one of its procurement special notices, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said the final requests for proposals (RFP) will be released “no sooner than” May for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).
The DOE issues the procurement notices quarterly for planning purposes and they are subject to change, especially due to on-site staffing and travel restrictions connected with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Thursday notice.
The agency issued a request for information last July on the WIPP operations and maintenance contract, currently held by Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership. Likewise, last August it issued a request for information on the transportation contract currently held by CAST Specialty Transportation.
Under its current contract, CAST trucks transuranic waste from DOE sites to the underground salt mine under an agreement valued at $112-million that started in 2017 and is scheduled to expire in May 2022.
As for WIPP operations, the Amentum-BWX Technologies team has a nine-year, $2.7-billion contract currently scheduled to sunset in September, barring an extension.
