The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on Monday issued a presolicitation notice for a contractor to provide environmental remediation under its Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) and other federal cleanup programs.
The pre-placed remedial action contract, with multiple indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task orders, would be conducted under the Army Corps’ Multiple Environmental Government Acquisition (MEGA) Strategy.
“The contract will support work assigned to the USACE Northwestern Division and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2, for hazardous, toxic and radioactive waste (HTRW) remediation projects for both civilian and military agencies of the Federal Government,” according to the presolicitation notice.
FUSRAP is just one of the federal programs the contract could support. Others include the EPA’s Superfund program, the Defense Department’s Environmental Quality Program, and remediation under the Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure Program. The long list of potential specific operations encompasses removal, transport, and disposal of low-level radiological, toxic, and hazardous wastes; decommissioning of facilities; mine waste reclamation; and deployment and operation of in-situ treatment systems.
Most of the work is due to be provided within the EPA’s Region 2, which covers New York state, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and eight tribal nations.
The Army Corps said it will release the formal solicitation around Aug. 6, and expects to issue a single contract for 10 award recipients. The total value of the contract, covering all task orders, would be $185 million.
The Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program manages cleanup of properties that were radioactively contaminated from the 1940s to 1960s by nuclear-weapon and energy operations of the Manhattan Engineer District and Atomic Energy Commission. There were 23 active FUSRAP sites in 10 states as of fiscal 2018. That included five in New York and New Jersey: one undergoing active cleanup, three being investigated, and one being prepared for turnover for long-term stewardship by the Energy Department’s Office of Legacy Management.
Senior leaders at the Department of Energy offered condolences Monday for the family of Yukiya Amano, who died late last week after announcing he would resign as director general of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The agency, which guards against the spread of fissile material and promotes the peaceful use of nuclear energy, announced Amano’s death in a statement Monday. The U.N. did not detail the cause of death. Media reported last week that Amano, 72, would step down early into his third four-year term as director general due to poor health.
“My prayers are with Amano family as they mourn the loss of Director General Yukiya Amano. For a decade he operated [the IAEA] with great leadership and professionalism,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry wrote on Twitter. “His measured and thoughtful approach to the IAEA will be greatly missed.”
National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty tweeted that Amano was “a true leader and promoter of nuclear nonproliferation and peaceful use of nuclear technologies,” and that his “untimely passing is a great loss for Japan, our Nation, and our world.”
Amano, a seasoned Japanese diplomat born two years after the end of World War II, became director general in 2009. He was previously Japan’s resident representative to the IAEA. Under his watch, the IAEA responded to the disastrous 2011 meltdowns of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission also offered “condolences to the #IAEA on the passing of Director General Yukiya Amano, whose leadership included regular and productive interactions with the NRC, such as a 2009 meeting with then-Commissioner Kristine Svinicki.”
The IAEA had not identified a full-time successor for Amano at deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. The body appointed Cornel Feruta of Romania as its acting director.
From The Wires
From Reuters: Tokyo Electric Power plans to decommission its Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, which sits just a few miles from the Fukushima Daiichi site.
From Clean Energy Wire: Germany’s nuclear waste management fund should make money this year, bolstering its ability to pay for disposal of the material.
