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 Operations and Site Mission Support contract that covers depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) work at both sites and the Decontamination and Decommissioning contract for 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 National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear weapons programs.
DOE has said both incumbents could be extended through September 2023 while the agency holds its competition for the follow-on contracts.
