The Department of Energy says it is conceivable that one company or joint venture could win both multibillion-dollar contracts being sought at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky.
In an online filing last week, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said such an outcome is not out of the question, provided the proper conflict of interest safeguards are in place between the two contracts. DOE’s planned Operations and Site Mission Support contract covers depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) work at both sites, plus construction of a depleted uranium tetrafluoride processing line for National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) nuclear-weapons programs at Portsmouth. The planned Decontamination and Decommissioning contract covers ongoing demolition at Portsmouth.
Information published since DOE released requests for proposals (RFPs) for both long-term contracts in late May “does not prohibit companies from competing for and potentially being selected for award of both” contracts, DOE wrote last week in a package of questions and answers about the Portsmouth solicitation.
Likewise, the RFP does not prohibit one company from winning either the Portsmouth cleanup contract or the Portsmouth-Paducah operations business while acting as a contractor or subcontractor on the other job, DOE said.
Bids are due July on the potential 10-year $5.87-billion contract for Portsmouth decommissioning and the potential 10-year, $2.9-billion Portsmouth Paducah operations contract.
Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth holds the current cleanup contract, currently valued at $4.4-billion. Atkin-led Mid-America Conversion Services holds the current DUF6 business that started in February 2017 and is valued at $703-million.
The follow-on DUF6 contract will also include work for the NNSA, which will pass money through the contract for construction of a depleted uranium tetrafluoride line at the Portsmouth Site. The semiautonomous nuclear weapons agency says it needs Portsmouth to crank out about 800 metric tons of depleted uranium tetrafluoride annually.
The new contractor will have to submit plans for the new line, to be built at Portsmouth’s X-1300 building, within two months of taking over from Mid-America, according to the performance work statement for the final Operations and Site Mission Support contract. The NNSA has said it was considering letting a small business coordinate delivery of uranium tetrafluoride to the agency.
Meanwhile, DOE has said incumbents at both sites could be extended through September 2023 while the agency holds its competition for the follow-on contracts.
