About three dozen businesses turned out Sept. 21-22 to learn about the potential $3 billion contract for Phase 1B of Department of Energy cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, according to online documents.
While the big crowd included plenty of the usual names around the weapons complex, one curiously absent was Jacobs, or its CH2M subsidiary, the lead partner in the incumbent team, CH2M-BWXT-West Valley.
There is much interest in the West Valley business because it is the only major DOE Office of Environmental Management award that will be up for grabs for a while, one industry executive told Exchange Monitor Thursday.
The incumbent contractor started doing cleanup at the nuclear site owned by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority under a contract, currently valued at $989 million, in August 2011. That deal expires in February 2025.
The registration list for the site tour and one-on-one meetings with DOE, which is responsible for cleaning up the state property, can be found here. The slide presentation on the draft request for proposals can be found here.
DOE issued the draft request for proposals in late August for West Valley and says the final solicitation won’t come out before December.
Nuclear Fuel Services ran a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at the 200-acre site within the Western New York Nuclear Service Center for six years, until 1972.
Phase 1B in the new contract will include removal of the underground portions of the Main Plant Processing Building, the Vitrification Facility and various ancillary structures, according to the slide presentation.
It also includes remediation of contaminated soil and management of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed disposal facility. Additionally, the winner will be in charge of overseeing onsite transuranic or greater-than-Class-C- waste that currently lacks a disposal path. A quarter of the value of the contract should be subcontracted to small business, DOE said.
About 680 tons of spent fuel were reprocessed at the plant, with 60% of it coming from the N-Reactor at the DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to the procurement materials. About 2.5 million cubic feet of radioactive waste were disposed of at the site. The West Valley Demonstration Project Act, signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, set up a system where DOE would clean up the site and pay 90% of the cost. The state foots the bill for the remainder.
The contract will have a 120-day transition period.
West Valley has currently-negotiated and approved labor contracts with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Lodge 2401 as well as the South Western New York Building Trades Council, according to the DOE slide presentation.
The list of businesses participating included: Akima, Allied Power, Amentum, American DND, Aptim Federal Services, Arcadis, AtkinsRealis Nuclear Secured, Bernhard Consulting, BWX Technologies, C.A. Murren & Sons, Cabrera Services, Cavendish Nuclear USA, EnergySolutions, Geosyntec Consultants, HGL, Interstate Ventures, Intomes, Navarro Research and Engineering, North Wind Portage, Orano Decommissioning Services, Pajarito Scientific, Parsons, Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Radiation Safety & Control Services, RSI, S&K Federal Services, Sevenson Environmental Services, Sigma-NAC Nuclear Solutions, Spectra Tech, Swift & Staley, TN Americas, Turnkey Technical Services, Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal Services and Waste Control Specialists.
