If the Department of Energy does not make an award soon for the Integrated Mission Completion Contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the agency might need to contact bidders to ensure offers on the multibillion-dollar procurement are still good, sources said this week.
The DOE issued its request for proposals nearly 11 months ago, on Oct. 1, 2020, for the potential 10-year, $21-billion indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity deal to solidify liquid radioactive waste at the federal nuclear complex adjacent to the Georgia state line.
Proposals were due Dec. 1 and were supposed to remain valid for 300 days according to Section L of the request for proposals. That translates to Sept. 27.
Three other industry sources said by phone Wednesday it is not uncommon for DOE to ask bidders to reaffirm their proposal price. A recent example of this came in April when DOE asked bidders on the cleanup contract at Idaho National Laboratory to extend their bid offers by 45 days. The following month, the Idaho contract was awarded to the Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition.
One of the sources expects DOE is anxious to award the Savannah River Site (SRS) environmental work contract soon, but said it could still take awhile to make all the final arrangements at headquarters.
An Amentum-led joint venture, Savannah River Remediation, is the incumbent cleanup contractor. The team started at the site in July 2009, and, thanks to various extensions, is scheduled to stay on the job at least through Sept. 30. The current deal is now valued at $7.5-billion. Other members of Savannah River Remediation are Bechtel, Jacobs and BWXT Technologies.
