An Atkins-led group that bid and lost on the Department of Energy’s $45-billion Integrated Tank Contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state bypassed the usual channels of protest and sued DOE over the award.
Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance, a team with Atkins Nuclear Secured, Jacobs Technology, and Westinghouse Government Services, filed suit under seal Monday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. A status conference on the bid-protest litigation was set for 4 p.m. Eastern Time today at the Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C.
Only a few of the 10 documents filed in connection with the case on Tuesday and Monday are open to public viewing in the claims court’s online docket.
According to those documents, there are a few other players on the losing team.
“No publicly traded company holds 10% or more of stock in HTDA [Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance], but the following public companies hold greater than 10% of ownership in HTDA’s member entities indirectly through their subsidiaries: SNC-Lavalin Group, Inc., Jacobs Solutions Inc., and Brookfield Corporation,” according to papers filed yesterday.
The case was filed on behalf of the joint venture by Kevin Mullen of Morrison & Foerster LLP. The case was assigned to Senior U.S. Claims Court Judge Marian Blank Horn.
Last month’s winner of the $45-billion contract, Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, on Tuesday filed a motion to intervene in the case. The winning contractor team consists of BWXT, Amentum and Fluor. The four-page motion says “as the awardee, [the winning team] has a direct and substantial economic interest in this action.”
The intervenor’s motion was filed by Luke Meier of the Blank Rome law firm in Washington, D.C.
A DOE spokesperson declined comment Tuesday as did BWXT.
An industry executive whose company is not one of the partners in the two joint ventures said the protester group likely felt it had a better chance in federal court, rather than the Government Accountability Office that usually processes bid protests.
Editor’s note, May 10, 2023, 9:18 a.m. the story was changed to remove a typo in the lead.
