The Department of Energy said this week it plans to increase the ceiling on a small business contract held by RSI Services to $47 million from $22 million for demolition and removal work at two Naval Reactor sites in New York state.
Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based RSI won the five-year demolition contract for the Kesselring and Knolls Atomic sites in 2021.
“A ceiling increase will allow for the complete demolition of the Q-Complex, a task that was originally planned under the current scope of work but has not been executed due to the lack of funding and contract ceiling,” DOE said in a justification for bypassing open competition for the next tranche of work, posted Thursday on a federal procurement website. The modification will not alter the original ordering period that runs through Oct. 29, 2025.
A federal judge in New Mexico has granted an additional 100 days, until Jan. 11, 2023, for the Department of Energy and the New Mexico Environment Department to continue settlement talks over a 2016 compliance order on consent that governs legacy nuclear cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar granted the request Oct. 3 after the parties sought the extension earlier in the day.
Previously, the parties have been granted 90-day extensions of the stay on the state’s legal challenge to the 2016 order, the sides said in an Oct. 3 status report filed with the U.S. District Court in New Mexico. The parties are getting a 100-day extension this time to avoid having the deadline fall on Jan. 1, 2023. Bargaining sessions which date to fall 2021 have been productive, the parties said in last week’s status report. The lawyers and technical staff met Sept. 28 and are starting to lay down specific details of potential revisions to the 2016 consent order.
Nuclear industry consultant Kevin Smith, a former Department of Energy and Department of Defense manager with much experience in the weapons complex, has joined Los Alamos Technical Associates (LATA), the New Mexico-based company said this week.
“Currently, Kevin provides procurement consultant services to a range of companies interested in doing business with DOE,” the company said in a Tuesday release that did not specify Smith’s role at LATA.
In addition to being a senior consultant based out of Richland, Washl, Smith was an executive vice president with PAE, now part of Amentume, for about two years until January 2020. Smith has held various executive level jobs for the DOE Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration, according to his LinkedIn bio. Prior to joining DOE, Smith served in the U.S. Air Force in various roles including Air Combat Command’s Director of Safety, LATA said in the release.
