At least one protest was filed over the Department of Energy’s decision this month to award an Atkins-led team $2.3 billion of work at the agency’s Portsmouth and Paducah sites.
A limited liability corporation called Mission Operations Alliance filed a bid protest Tuesday with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), according to an online notice. Two sources suggested Thursday the venture making the protest is headed by Bechtel National.
Bechtel did not immediately respond to a request for comment by deadline.
Mission Conversion Services Alliance, a team of Atkins Nuclear Secured, Westinghouse Government Services, and Jacobs Technology, was awarded the contract Nov. 8 by DOE’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office.
Along with operation of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion plants, the work also includes some environmental cleanup and operations work at Portsmouth and Paducah currently covered by other contracts.
Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services currently handles the DUF6 work at both sites under an $858-million contract in effect since November 2016.