The Energy Department has again extended the deadline for bids on a potential five-year, $250 million support services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky.
In a notice published last week, DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said proposals are now due by 4 p.m. EDT on April 16. Originally, proposals were due March 19 before the agency issued its first two-week extension.
While it has to date declined to comment on plans to retain the business, Paducah-based incumbent Swift & Staley was one of many companies that sent representatives to a February industry day for the contract. Swift & Staley’s existing five-year, $192 million contract expires in September,
The small-business set-aside is a landlord-type contract covering a wide variety of tasks at the former uranium enrichment complex that is now being remediated. These include safeguards and security, snow removal, records management, property management, and preparation of documents.
Other firms that registered for the industry day included Spectra Tech, Atkins Nuclear, GEM Technologies, Navarro Research and Engineering, ARS Aleut Remediation, Banda Group International, Boston Government Services, and Los Alamos Technical Associates.
Proposals should be emailed to [email protected].
A 6.5 magnitude earthquake shook Idaho at around 6 p.m. local time Tuesday, with the epicenter about 120 miles northwest of the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed.
“While ground shaking was felt, there was no damage to any INL facilities,” INL spokeswoman Sarah Neumann said in a Wednesday email.
Another source noted the earthquake was centered in the “seismically active” mountains of central Idaho, while the lab is located on the seismically quiet Eastern Snake River Plain.
It was the most powerful earthquake in Idaho since 1983, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported. There were no reports of fatalities, although some roads were closed due to rockslides.
A Fluor subsidiary that manages the Naval Nuclear Laboratory at INL said no workers were injured and preliminary inspections suggest no damage to its facilities. Engineers are conducting a full inspection. “The containers used for spent fuel storage are robustly designed to survive an array of conditions,” and the event did not cause any radioactive contamination, said spokesman Gene Terwilliger.
The site is already in a minimum operational status to help stem the potential spread of COVID-19. As of last week, about 1,000 people were still reporting to work at INL facilities, with another 3,900 working remotely.
