The Energy Department has exercised a one-year option to keep Spectra Tech on the job overseeing spent fuel facilities at the Idaho National Laboratory through March 2021.
Procurement documents show the department picked up its last option in February for the current contrac.
The Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based engineering and environmental services firm began work on its $45 million contract in April 2016, managing spent fuel storage installations licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) at INL and the former Fort Saint Vrain nuclear power plant in Colorado. Spectra Tech ensures regulatory compliance and physical security at the spent fuel installations.
Nuclear material from the Three Mile Island reactor Unit 2 in Pennsylvania is stored at the lab’s Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center. About 150 tons of highly radioactive core debris, including melted fuel, resulted from the reactor’s partial meltdown in 1979. The retired nuclear plant at St. Vrain has about 23 metric tons of heavy metal.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management is planning a potential 15-year, $6.4 billion cleanup award for the Idaho National Laboratory, which would replace both the Spectra Tech contract and the five-year, $2 billion Fluor Idaho remediation contract that is set to expire in May 2021.
About 90 representatives from government contractors showed up at a Feb. 25 industry day to learn more about the planned new INL contract. The draft request for proposals was issued in February.
