As of this morning, the Government Accountability Office website lists no bid protests filed yet for the Department of Energy’s Dec. 22 award of a potential 10-year, $3.8 billion Savannah River National Laboratory contract to a Battelle-owned team.
Accounting for holidays and weekends, this coming Friday will mark 10 days since DOE announced the award. Losing bidders have 10 days to protest the award, but the clock does not start until after DOE debriefs the competition.
“EM is moving forward to debrief the contract offerers and anticipates issuing a Notice to Proceed to the Awardee following the expiration of the award protest period,” a spokesperson for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) wrote in a Dec. 23 email. The transition period is 120 days following issuance of the notice to proceed.
Contract challenges must be received by the Government Accountability Office within 10 days after losing bidders learn details of the DOE contract selection decision. Battelle Savannah River Alliance was selected over two rival bidding teams, the DOE said in announcing the selection.
National laboratory operations at Savannah River are currently part of the $14.8-billion site management and operations contract held by the Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. DOE holds options that would stretch that deal out to September 2022 but the Batelle team could take over before then, according to the EM spokesperson.
Battelle Memorial Institute is the sole member of the limited liability corporation. Battelle’s website says it oversees more than 27,000 employees at eight DOE national laboratories, including the Idaho National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Battelle’s teaming subcontractors at the Savannah River Lab include: Clemson University, Georgia Tech Research Corporation, South Carolina State University, University of Georgia Research Foundation, and University of South Carolina as well as Longenecker & Associates and TechSource.
In announcing its selection, DOE said the university-heavy lineup helps the department achieve its goal to increase academic involvement in managing the lab.