The Energy Department isn’t releasing any additional details on the timeline for announcing a new environmental management contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico.
“DOE does not comment on ongoing procurements,” a spokesperson said Wednesday.
The current “bridge” contract for legacy cleanup at LANL, held by lab management and operations prime Los Alamos National Security, expires on Sept. 30. There has been no official word from DOE on the plan for environmental management at Los Alamos from that date until a new contract takes effect.
LANL Director Charles McMillan acknowledged recently that the contract procurement is taking longer than anticipated.
“We had expected that the announcement would have already been made on that,” McMillan told the Los Alamos County Council last week, “but it’s going to be a little bit in the future.”
The Energy Department had earlier projected the contract would be awarded from June to August of this year. That might now not happen until October, according to industry sources.
Energy Department contractors Fluor and CH2M are believed to be among the bidders for the new contract, an industry source said recently.
The deal is anticipated to have a performance term lasting up to 10 years, for management of waste produced at the lab from 1970 to 1998. Management of more recent waste remains under the purview of DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees LANL.
McMillan told LANL employees this week he will step down as head of the lab at the end of this year. He was appointed director of the weapons lab in 2011.
