The Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management has issued stopgap extensions to avoid lapses in nuclear cleanup work this week at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and treatment of a uranium enrichment byproduct there, and at the Paducah Site in Kentucky.
Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth and Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services will both receive contract extensions of six months, through Sept. 30, to avoid contract expirations on Tuesday March 28, according to the major contractor summary, last updated March 13, by the nuclear cleanup office.
In a procurement notice last month, the DOE said the extensions would provide more time for the Office of Environmental Management to award planned follow on contracts. Mid-America’s extension will be worth between $58 million and $70 million, according to documents filed with a February procurement notice.
The Environmental Management procurement office is evaluating offers received via competitive bids for a follow-on contract to the $4.8-billion contract for Portsmouth remediation held by Fluor-BWXT since March 2011.
The office is also weighing proposals for what is now known as the Operations and Site Mission Support Contractor for Portsmouth and Paducah. The follow-on will mesh those landlord-like tasks with work now done under Mid-America’s depleted uranium hexafluoride contract.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management said last month it planned to extend the Mid-America contract by six months to Sept. 30.
Mid-America started work in February 2017 on its $717-million contract to convert the byproduct from the two uranium enrichment plants in uranium oxide, a more stable form for storage, transportation and disposal.
As of Thursday afternoon, no final written notice of extensions had been posted on the federal procurement website, SAM.gov.
