More than 10 months ago the Department of Energy published its final solicitation for a new $6.4-billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract with a 10-year ordering period and industry sources are keeping watch.
Bid proposals for the environmental work around the Idaho National Laboratory were due last July and the contract has not been awarded as of deadline Friday for Weapons Complex Monitor.
In recent weeks industry sources have told the Monitor they expect the Idaho contract to be the next big one released by the DOE Office of Environmental Management.
Of the two incumbents, Fluor Idaho has the five-year, $2.2-billion remediation business while Spectra Tech has a deal valued at $53-million for spent fuel management over roughly the same period. Both agreements are scheduled to sunset by Sept. 30, according to a summary of DOE Office of Environmental Management contracts. The agreements were just extended within the last month beyond the prior May 31 expiration date, a DOE spokesperson said Wednesday .
The value of the four-month Fluor Idaho extension is $136 million, while the value of Spectra Tech’s contract extension is $2.5 million, according to DOE. There is a 90-day transition period included in the final request for proposals for the follow-on Idaho contract.
Typically, if DOE is not ready to make an award it will just extend the current providers, so in that sense it is not a big deal, an industry source said Tuesday by phone. At the same time, it is “frustrating” for the bidders, because “you have got to tie up these key personnel and pay them,” until there is a decision, the source added.
Dozens of individuals showed up for a site tour and industry briefings on the RFP in February 2020, with those attending including representatives from major contractors such as Amentum, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, EnergySolutions, Jacobs, Navarro Research and Engineering, North Wind Group, Veolia, and Westinghouse.
Work under the contract includes operating the long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit and treating sodium-bearing waste, protection of the Snake River Plain Aquifer, tearing down old decaying facilities and packaging and shipping legacy transuranic waste from the Idaho National Laboratory to DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
Besides the Idaho contract, there are two other final RFPs for multibillion-dollar contracts where awards have not been issued by Environmental Management. The potential $21-billion Savannah River Integrated Mission solicitation for waste management in South Carolina came out in October 2020 while the potential $8.3-billion contract for cleanup work at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee was issued in December. Both incumbents are joint ventures led by Amentum.
