DOE Gives Pro2Serve More Work to Aid in Paducah Transition

As the Department of Energy continues to work to award the new contract to provide deactivation services for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Professional Project Services (Pro2Serve) is getting a boost in work to help support the transition of the plant back to DOE. DOE has added approximately $12.5 million worth of work to Pro2Serve’s existing environmental technical services contract, according to a notice issued late last week. “Pro2Serve’s task order includes a minimum of PGDP Transition Support services and Facility De-lease Support activities. The modification to the Pro2Serve task order will significantly increase the Transition Support services and De-leasing activities,” the notice says.

Pro2Serve has been given the additional work because of DOE’s delays in awarding the new Paducah deactivation contract, according to the notice. An agreement reached between the Department and USEC, the current leaseholder for the Paducah plant, sets an Oct. 1 date for the facility to be returned to DOE. “The Paducah deactivation contract was supposed to include support for these transition and de-leasing activities. However, since the Paducah Deactivation contract was not awarded as anticipated in January 2014, and it has still not been awarded as of June 2014, the ability of both parties to fulfill the terms of the framework agreement will be seriously impacted without the issuance of a modification” to Pro2Serve’s contract, the notice says.

The notice goes on to state, “Without the increased work from Pro2Serve, potentially unrecognized environmental/safety non-compliance issues associated with the facilities will go unnoticed, and there would be insufficient programmatic controls in place to ensure these issues are discovered and addressed prior to return”