A venture called Carlsbad Operations Alliance LLC has filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office challenging the Department of Energy’s selection of a Bechtel-led entity to serve as the next prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
A notice of the contract challenge dated Monday was filed online with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) website. The notice said GAO expects to rule on the protest by Nov. 9.
Multiple industry sources said Wednesday Carlsbad Operations Alliance appears to be a joint venture led by Westinghouse. One of the two sources said Veolia is also a partner. A Westinghouse spokesperson declined comment as did a Veolia spokesperson. .
An Internet search indicated Carlsbad Operations Alliance has an office in Hopkins, S.C., and is in the hazardous waste treatment and disposal business, according to a notice with a government procurement website.
Westinghouse is a former management and operations contractor at WIPP.
Carlsbad Operations Alliance marks the second entity to contest the July 11 selection of Bechtel’s Tularosa Basin Range Services, doing business as Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, over four other contractor teams. The winner’s contended contract could be worth $3 billion over 10 years, with options.
National TRU Solutions, a joint venture led by Huntington Ingalls Industries, was the first to protest the award, filing protest with GAO last week.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is currently managed and operated for DOE by Nuclear Waste Partnership, a team of Amentum and BWX Technologies. It is the United States only underground disposal site for defense transuranic waste.
The current WIPP contract held by Nuclear Waste Partnership, currently valued at $2.7 billion, began in October 2012 and was scheduled to run through September. Given the bid protests might not be resolved at GAO until November, DOE may keep the incumbent on a little longer.
The recent contract announcement from DOE said Bechtel’s deal would be worth $3 billion with plans for a four-year base period and six single-year options. Bechtel’s small business subcontractor would be Los Alamos Technical Associates.
“NWP, the existing contractor, failed miserably to meet the requirements of the previous contract and should have been terminated after the 2014 fire and radiation release,” Don Hancock, nuclear waste program director at Southwest Research and Information Center a citizens group, said in a Thursday email. “So a new contractor is welcome, if it actually performs better, including safer operations.”
WIPP suspended operations for about three years following a February 2014 underground radiation leak that contaminated part of the salt mine. The leak was blamed on a barrel of waste generated and improperly packaged at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
