The Department of Energy’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) has extended the contracts for three technical support services providers, potentially through the end of the year, an agency spokesperson confirmed Monday.
In a notice released in January, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management indicated it could push back the expiration of the contracts held by the three companies – Tennessee-based RSI EnTech and Professional Project Services (Pro2Serve), along with New Mexico-based Strategic Management Solutions – from April 1 to Dec. 31 if necessary. The Energy Department has approved up to nine months via a series of three-month extensions.
RSI EnTech could receive up to $9 million to continue providing technical services for the Portsmouth Site in Ohio “if they are extended all the way through December,” a DOE spokesperson said. Pro2Serve’s extension is potentially worth $5.6 million for continued technical support services at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. Strategic Management Solutions would receive up to roughly $10 million for extended technical support services for conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) at both Portsmouth and Paducah.
The Energy Department last year sought to replace the three current individual contracts with a single consolidated award covering information technology, infrastructure, administrative support, and technical engineering — basically the same work provided in the separate contacts. The agency last June awarded a five-year, $137 million consolidated contract to Pro2Serve, but withdrew the award in August following a bid protest.
The Energy Department is still planning a consolidated long-term technical support services at the Portsmouth and Paducah.
Portsmouth and Paducah are the sites of two now-retired gaseous diffusion plants used to enrich uranium first for military purposes and later for commercial nuclear power sites. Portsmouth operated from 1954 until 2001, and DOE remediation of the site started in 2011. Paducah enriched uranium from 1952 until 2013 and remediation started in the late 1980s.
