PHOENIX, Ariz. – While the Energy Department and its nuclear cleanup contractors acknowledge they are learning on the job, both sides Wednesday stressed the urgency of meeting deadlines for the first set of solicitations issued under the agency’s overhauled approach to procurement.
Requests for proposals are due March 18 for two potential 10-year, multibillion-dollar contracts at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Central Plateau Cleanup Contract and the Tank Closure Contract are the first two RFPs to employ DOE’s new end-state contracting model.
If the department fails to make these awards on time it could “choke the entire system,” said Greg Meyer, senior vice president for Fluor’s environment and nuclear business. Delays in the two Hanford awards would likely mean subsequent delays for the next contracts in the pipeline.
The next contracts earmarked for the end-state approach — Nevada Environmental Protection, the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York, Idaho National Laboratory, Portsmouth Decontamination and Decommissioning, and the Oak Ridge Remediation Contract – are all set to come in rapid succession over the next couple years, Meyer said.
The agency is pushing hard to issue the two Hanford awards in July because the current contract extensions are scheduled to expire in September, said Tamara Miles, procurement director for DOE’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center.
“It’s very challenging to do two proposals at once, especially under a new system,” said Jacobs Senior Vice President Karen Wiemelt.
AECOM Executive Vice President Mark Whitney agreed, adding there is “a little more scrambling” associated with the tank contract, because Central Plateau documents have been out a little longer.
The new model stresses use of indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) agreements over the traditional prime contractor approach where DOE and the vendor agreement to a 10-year pricing agreement in advance. Instead, the Energy Department will “partner” with a contractor team to handle a wide array of work task orders assigned under the contract, according to the agency.