Comments are due to the Energy Department by 5 p.m. Eastern time Thursday on the request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice for the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state.
The agency issued the RFI on Oct. 10 as part of its market research for a future draft request for proposals for the cleanup project. A CH2M-BWX Technologies joint venture holds a $542 million contract for Phase 1 of the project, which began in August 2011 and runs through March 2020.
The Phase 1 work includes deactivating and tearing down highly radioactive facilities, and disposing of their components, as well as soil remediation. Some of these tasks remain for the next phase.
The Energy Department has not said when it expects to issue a draft RFP. Prospective bidders are not required to comment on the RFI in order to pursue the future solicitation. The current vendor has declined to say if it will seek the follow-on award.
The RFI applies to what DOE describes as Phase 1B of cleanup at West Valley. Jodi Gordon ([email protected]) is the contracting officer. Responses to the RFI can be sent to [email protected].
In the request for information, DOE asked prospective contractors to detail their ability to conduct remediation and to provide “innovate end states” to speed ultimate cleanup.
Phase 1 cleanup at West Valley is currently anticipated to wrap up by 2030, a decade longer than expected when DOE in 2010 issued an environmental impact statement on the project. The department is working on a supplement, a draft of which should be out in 2020.
West Valley is owned by the state and covers about 200 acres of the 3,300-acre Western New York Nuclear Service Center. Between 1962 and 1972 the West Valley site was home to the Nuclear Fuel Services reprocessing plant.
The Energy Department plans to complete environmental remediation around 2040, according to the life-cycle projection, at a total cost in the neighborhood of $2 billion.
