The Department of Energy missed its self-imposed target to issue a final request for proposals by Sept. 30 for the multibillion-dollar Savannah River Site Management and Operating Contract and now plans to put the deal on the street in October.
The agency made the announcement in a procurement notice posted online Thursday.
DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which owns the site, in April rolled out its draft request for proposals for the site operations contract, potentially spanning a decade and worth some $21.5-billion.
The Fluor-led incumbent, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, has been on the job since August 2008 and is scheduled to stay in charge of the federal complex along the South Carolina border with Georgia through September 2022 under an agreement now valued at $15.8 billion.
The original 10-year contract was worth $9.8-billion and the joint venture has been awarded various extensions since it expire in 2018. The September 2022 date marks the end of a three-year extension package agreed to with DOE in July 2019.
As with the existing site operations contract, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will pass money through the new Savannah River landlord agreement to pay for tritium harvesting and construction of a plutonium pit factory at the sprawling site near the South Carolina-Georgia border.
