Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
12/5/2014
The Department of Energy this week officially released the details of plans for the 18-to-24-month period for the transition of management of legacy cleanup work at Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Office of Environmental Management from the National Nuclear Security Administration. As previously reported by WC Monitor, DOE plans to award a sole source contract early next year to current lab contractor Los Alamos National Security to cover cleanup activities during the transition period. “We want to ensure the least amount of disruption possible. During this time EM will work toward establishing a new contract for the longer-term legacy cleanup work. This transition will not alter the scope of the cleanup or the current activities underway,” acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Mark Whitney said in a call with reporters.
The new contract with LANS will have a one-year base period and two six-month option periods. During that transition, “EM plans to refine the definition of the required bridge contract work scope during this interim transition period to align with those high priority activities required to implement recently identified corrective actions in the legacy transuranic waste program,” according to a synopsis of the bridge contract DOE posted this week. It also notes that the scope will be further aligned with regulatory requirements and the Administrative Order issued by the New Mexico Environment Department this year. DOE did not release the complete transition plan.
DOE Says Transition ‘Right Thing to Do’
Currently cleanup work at Los Alamos is managed by the NNSA’s Los Alamos Field Office but funded by EM, while the work is performed by the Bechtel-led M&O contractor LANS and its subcontractors. But this year violations related to LANL transuranic waste treatment have come to light, and a drum processed at the Lab was linked to the February radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. In early September, NMED called for transition of the work scope to EM as a condition for the restart of WIPP. Later that month, DOE established working groups to develop a plan for the transition of legacy cleanup work to contracts managed by EM.
The transition of the work scope to EM was something that had been considered over time, and was not directly related to NMED’s request, Whitney said this week. “We want to continue to strengthen that relationship, but the purpose of doing this was not necessarily to mend fences or anything of that matter,” he said. “It was a management decision based on the Secretary’s direction and his belief that it was the right thing to do based on an efficiency, accountability and responsibility standpoint.”
DOE to Establish EM Los Alamos Site Office in Early 2015
By early 2015, DOE plans to establish an EM Los Alamos Site Office. “We anticipate being able to fully staff that office by the end of calendar year 2015,” Whitney said. He added later: “Following an initial recruitment of four key federal positions, including a field office manager, the deputy manager, regulatory specialist, and a contracting officer, EM will perform a staffing analysis to ensure that there is effective and efficient oversight and management of the work. We do expect the federal workforce impacts to be very limited.”
The NNSA Los Alamos Field Office’s cleanup programs are currently headed by Assistant Manager Pete Maggiore, an NNSA employee reporting to LANL Field Office Manager Kim Davis Lebak, though most of the other federal workers in the cleanup program are EM employees. “What we will do as part of this transition period is competitively seek out a new manager of the office,” Whitney said, noting that the position would report directly to EM headquarters. Other key federal positions include the deputy manager, regulatory specialist, and a contracting officer.
DOE Considering Other Contracts During Transition Period
An Oct. 29 draft version of the transition plan obtained by WC Monitor states that to aid in the acquisition planning for the new Los Alamos cleanup contracts, EM plans to “non-competitively” award by the end of 2015 a small business contract to cover activities such as evaluation of acquisition alternatives and development of an acquisition strategy and scope statements. It also stated that EM plans to compete and award before the end of Fiscal Year 2015 a separate architecture and engineering contract to help guide the remaining Los Alamos legacy cleanup. This week Whitney said DOE is looking at those options. Whitney said this week: “We are considering those types of things along with a host of other things that will ultimately get us to where we can award a new contract in an 18-to-24 month time frame.”
And while the draft plan said that during the transition period EM would consider using existing contracting vehicles, such as the nationwide Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity cleanup contracts, to perform “small, severable work segments,” that is no longer being considered, according to Whitney. “We are not planning to do that. We plan to pull the entire scope into this bridge contract during the transition period,” he said.