The liquid waste vendor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will remain in place for up to two years while the Energy Department prepares to solicit a long-term contract that could be worth $21 billion.
Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation (SRR) has held the $6 billion business since July 2009; its current extension is set to expire Sept. 30. But DOE’s Office of Environmental Management on Thursday issued a notice regarding its intention to extend SRR’s tenure at least through Sept. 30, 2021, with three additional four-month option periods that could conceivably keep the incumbent on the job through September 2022.
The incumbent’s extension and procurement for the replacement Integrated Mission Completion Contract at Savannah River were announced in a press release from the Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center.
Given that no extension has actually been issued yet, an Energy Department spokesperson declined to say what the transaction might be worth. The 18-month extension that Savannah River Remediation received in March 2019 is valued at nearly $1 billion.
The liquid waste vendor oversees 35 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste at the Savannah River Site’s tank farms. Its other tasks include operation of Defense Waste Processing Facility and the Saltstone Production Facility. The other members of SRR are Bechtel, Jacobs, and BWX Technologies.
The DOE nuclear cleanup office also said Thursday it could as early as September issue the final request for proposals for the contract to replace SRR. The Savannah River Site Integrated Mission Completion Contract will be an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity award with a 10-year ordering period, although the performance period is 15 years. In other words, the actual work would be done over 15 years.
Sources familiar with the process say the Integrated Mission contract is basically the liquid waste contract with some potential responsibility for management of materials around the H-Canyon chemical separations facility.
The contract will include a 90-day transition period from the current vendor.
An industry source said Thursday he expects Energy Department contracting mainstays BWXT, Amentum, and Fluor to join in a venture to contend for the new contract. The source, who does not work for any of those companies, did not offer an opinion on what other companies might compete.
“Due to the competitive nature of the contract bid process, Fluor does not publicly provide information on specific pursuits nor the details associated with such prospective opportunities,” Fluor spokeswoman Annika Toenniessen said by email Thursday.
BWX Technologies said in February it was interested in the SRS Integrated Mission business. That’s still the case, spokesman Jud Simmons said Thursday.
The industry source also said Fluor and Amentum appear ready to team up to pursue the Savannah River Site management and operations contract when it comes time for bidding. Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions has the current $14.8 billion contract to run the SRS complex. The incumbent operator has been in place since August 2008; the current agreement is set to expire Sept. 30.
The Energy Department has not said when to expect to issue the formal procurement notice for that contract. It will not include management of the Savannah River National Laboratory, which is being split off into a separate contract.
Editor’s note: Article modified on May 12 to correct the length of the potential option periods.
