The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on Friday announced the selection of an APTIM-AECOM contracting team to decommission the retired SM-1 power reactor at Fort Belvoir, Va.
The contract with APTIM AECOM Decommissioning LLC, headquartered in nearby Alexandria Va., is worth $67.98 million, according to an Army Corps press release. It covers what is expected to be a five-year job, starting in early 2021, for decommissioning, dismantlement, and disposal of the plant.
“The Army Corps has worked diligently to award the contract for this very complex and challenging project,” Col. John Litz, commander of the USACE Baltimore District, said in the release. “Our radiological experts have safely executed projects like this in the past, and our team of trained professionals will use proven techniques, precautions and engineering controls to prioritize and ensure the continued safety of our workers, installation community and public.”
Baton Rouge, La.-based APTIM provides engineering, program management, and other services to government and commercial clients. It was the contractor for the Army Corps’ last decommissioning job, for the MH-1A reactor on the STURGIS barge, which was completed in 2018 at the Port of Galveston, Texas.
Los Angeles-headquartered infrastructure multinational AECOM is currently partnering with nuclear services firm EnergySolutions in decommissioning the two remaining reactors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in San Diego County, Calif. However, it plans to sell its stake in that business as part of the divestment of AECOM’s at-risk construction business.
The Army Corps on Friday declined to say how many other bids it received for the SM-1 project, or from which companies. Along with AECOM and APTIM, companies that sent representatives to a February 2019 industry day on the procurement included Bechtel, BWX Technologies, Fluor, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Leidos, and Orano.
BWXT did not bid, spokesman Jud Simmons said Friday.
SM-1 operated from 1957 to 1973 at the Army base about 17 miles outside of Washington, D.C. It was the first pressurized water reactor to be connected to the power grid in the United States, but was used primarily for training. Limited decommissioning after closure included extraction of nuclear fuel and control rods from the reactor, some decontamination, removal of radioactive waste, and sealing off the reactor’s pressure vessel, the Army Corps said. The plant has been in safe-storage mode (SAFSTOR) since 1974.
The rest of the job will involve decontamination of facilities, dismantlement of the reactor building and other structures, packaging and removal of waste, and remediation of the area. The 3.6-acre plot would be afterward be available for unrestricted use, according to an Army Corps environmental assessment released in May.
While personnel levels will vary based on the phases of work, the Army Corps expects generally to have six to eight staffers on-site, along with 50 to 75 employees from the contractor, Brenda Barber, program manager for the Baltimore District’s Environmental and Munitions Design Center, said by email Friday.
“At this point, the team will begin the initial development of work plans and obtain all necessary permits,” she wrote. “We anticipate 6-8 months of planning, engineering, and permitting. We will likely mobilize to the site in the Feb/Mar 2021 timeframe. Initial mobilization will involve setting up our office space, preparing the site for major work, and training the site team.”
Over the procurement process, the Army Corps has emphasized the challenges specific to this project, including the site’s proximity to Washington, D.C., the small amount of acreage to perform the work, and removal of radioactive material through an inhabited military installation.
The Army Corps will conduct a cost-benefit analysis to determine where various waste streams should be shipped for disposal, Barber said, but the SM-1 reactor pressure vessel will be sent to the federal cell at the Waste Control Specialists’ facility in Andrews County, Texas.
APTIM Federal Services is also the Army Corps’ contractor for engineering design of utility segregation of the disused SM-1A reactor at Fort Greely, Alaska, ahead of that facility’s eventual decommissioning.
In June, USACE issued a sources-sought notice for potential vendors for that contract.
The service life of the SM-1A reactor lasted just a decade, from 1962 to 1972, during which it produced power for the Army installation roughly 6 miles south of Delta Junction and over 200 miles northeast of Anchorage.
The Army Corps expects to begin taking bids on the contract in April 2021, with an award due by July 2022 and decommissioning scheduled for federal fiscal years 2022 to 2028. Like the Fort Belvoir work, the project will come with a specific set of challenges – not least being the isolated location and limited work seasons.
