The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will continue to bundle management of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas in the post Consolidated Nuclear Security era, according to a pre-procurement note posted on July 31.
The single contract would be worth up to $28 billion over 10 years, including a five-year base “with options for up to five additional years,” the semiautonomous Department of Energy weapons agency said. The NNSA plans to post a draft request for proposals in August, according to the notice says.
The NNSA announced in June that it would not pick up the Bechtel National-led incumbent’s next two-year option to manage the two plants, citing time-card fraud, safety lapses, and lack of confidence about recruiting, retention, and cybersecurity. Consolidated Nuclear Security will be off the job after Sept. 30, 2021. The new contract’s transition period would notionally begin in June 20, the presolicitation notice says.
Pantex is where the NNSA services active nuclear weapons, dismantles unneeded weapons, and keeps some weapons in a sort of warm storage. Y-12 is where the NNSA makes the uranium-fueled secondary stages for nuclear weapons.
The notice does not address one rumor that has been bouncing around since the NNSA announced it was parting ways with Consolidated Nuclear Security: that the government might keep the incumbent, or at least Bechtel, on the job to continue building the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12. That facility, under construction now by Bechtel, is supposed to be finished at a cost of no more than $6.5 billion by December 2025, after which it will become the manufacturing hub for the uranium-fueled secondary stages of nuclear weapons.
BWX Technologies, the former Pantex and Y-12 manager, has already indicated interest in the follow-on combined-site contract, as has Amentum – the former AECOM Management Services. Bechtel has said it is “deeply” disappointed with the NNSA’s decision to cut Consolidated Nuclear Security loose.
Meanwhile, the NNSA has created an online hub to keep track of documents and data related to the soon-to-start competition for the combined Y-12-Pantex contract. Links to the draft solicitation will appear there, among other places, the NNSA said.
With nearly $30 billion at stake, and half of that firm money, the competition is likely to be heated and all-inclusive. In its quarterly earnings call this week, BWX Technologies again flagged its interest in taking the sites back, with CEO Rex Geveden calling the available pipeline of DOE work “Attractive.”
One industry source, meanwhile, said BWXT is exploring a teaming arrangement with Huntington Ingalls Industries. The latter is already an integrated subcontractor with Triad National Security, prime contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico since November 2018, and a junior team member of the management and operations contractor at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C.
