An Energy Department contractor at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina is seeking expressions of interest from subcontractors potentially interested in conducting concrete testing at Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) 7.
Savannah River Remediation said in a May 8 post on a federal contracting website it is seeking responses by June 15. The AECOM-led contractor is trying to gauge interest and qualifications for subcontractors to carry out the testing to support construction of the new waste disposal unit.
In the notice, SRR said construction could start in August on a 32-million-gallon tank for low-level radioactive salt waste. A similar disposal structure, SDU 6, was finished in 2017 at a cost of about $118 million.
The solicitation requests information from potential subcontractors to take over for SRR staff who are currently doing the various on-site and off-site testing. The subcontractor would have to show its quality assurance testing lab meets recognized industry standards. Concrete testing is typically used to assess the structural integrity of construction projects.
The expression of interest/request for information notice was posted on FedBizOpps.Gov. The point of contact is Jonathan L. Younts with subcontract administration, at [email protected].
About 35 million gallons of radioactive salt and sludge waste are held in dozens of storage tanks at Savannah River.
A formal request for proposals is expected to be issued after the expressions of interest are reviewed. The award, which is expected in the fourth quarter, will be a fixed-price subcontract. While SRR currently anticipates issuing a single subcontract, it reserves the right to make multiple awards.
The Energy Department has made another revision to the request for proposals (RFP) package for construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
This latest amendment specifies the level of experience needed for the contractor installing micropiles at the site for the mercury treatment plant. Micropiles driven into the ground to help support a building’s foundation.
“The micropile contractor shall have a minimum of 5 years of successful experience on 10 projects of micropile design and installation in karstic limestone and dolomite bedrock with variable resistance to weathering resulting in cracks, voids, and irregular surfaces, creating the karstic topography,” according to the revision. The DOE document retains prior language saying the contractor should be “fully experienced” in micropile design and construction.
This was the second revision to the RFP for the project. In a prior update on April 24, the department extended the RFP deadline two weeks to May 21. The Energy Department said May 7 it does not anticipate making any more amendments to the document.
The agency has said previously it could award a contract, worth up to $250 million, by the end of August, to build and test the Mercury Treatment Facility. DOE anticipates the plant will start operation in 2022. The facility will treat contaminated water before it drifts from the storm sewer at the Y-12 National Security Complex to East Fork Poplar Creek.
Nuclear weapons research in the 1950s and 1960s resulted in mercury contamination in buildings, soils, and water at the Oak Ridge Site.
Department of Energy veteran Theodore Garrish has become the agency’s acting general counsel — a position he has held before.
Garrish, whose name appeared without announcement in the general counsel spot on a Department of Energy organization chart, was already the agency’s assistant secretary for international affairs. The Senate confirmed him for the post in April.
It was not clear Tuesday whether Garrish remained assistant secretary for international affairs, or when exactly he became acting general counsel. The Energy Department did not respond to requests for comment, but a source said Garrish became general counsel Thursday.
To become the full-time general counsel, Garrish would have to be confirmed by the Senate again. The Donald Trump administration had not nominated him for the post at deadline. Garrish was DOE’s general counsel for two years during the Reagan administration.
There has not been a permanent DOE general counsel so far in the Trump administration. The White House nominated David Jonas for the post in January, but Jonas withdrew from consideration after running into opposition in the Senate.
Prior to Garrish, John Lucas was DOE’s acting general counsel. Lucas is still DOE’s deputy general counsel for transactions, technology, and contractor human resources; he had to step down as acting general counsel last year because federal law limits how long an interim appointee may serve in a job that requires Senate confirmation.
