The Department of Energy on Thursday set the date for the new support services contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state to begin the transition to operations.
In a notice to proceed, the agency told Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) it can start the 120-day turnover on Aug. 17.
Hanford Mission Integration Solutions is a joint venture of Leidos, Centerra, and Parsons. It will succeed Mission Support Alliance, which has had different parent companies over time but now consists of Leidos and Centerra.
While the Mission Support Alliance contract is due to expire on Nov. 25, the Energy Department said in its Thursday announcement it would be extended for a few weeks to allow the transition to be completed in mid-December.
The Energy Department in December 2019 awarded the contract worth $4 billion to $6 billion over up to a decade for a wide range of services at Hanford, a former plutonium production complex that is now home to a massive DOE cleanup operation. The work includes security and emergency response, utilities, and operation of the Hazardous Material Management and Emergency Response (HAMMER) Federal Training Center.
The award in April survived a protest to the Government Accountability Office from another bidding team led by Huntington Ingalls Industries.
The notice to proceed normally would have followed shortly after the GAO ruling, according to industry representatives. “While the start of transition to the new contractor has been delayed because of reduced Hanford Site operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, safety controls implemented at the Site have proven to be effective, and it is prudent to start the transition to the new contractor in two weeks,” the Energy Department said Thursday.
Most of Mission Support Alliance’s roughly 1,500 employees are expected to stay on under Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, Leidos spokeswoman Suzzanna Martinez said by email Friday. The contractor’s website, which will provide information on vendor personnel and organization, is scheduled to go live within three days of the notice to proceed.
Hanford Mission Integration Solutions “will stand up the leadership team, modify processes and procedures to be compliant with the new contract when it goes into effect, including being prepared to execute new sub-contracts under HMIS,” Martinez wrote.
The Energy Department affirmed Thursday it has not issued a notice to proceed to the next contractor for environmental remediation at the Hanford Site’s Central Plateau. The vendor, Central Plateau Cleanup Co., is comprised of Amentum, Fluor, and Atkins. That team won its potential $10 billion, 10-year deal last December, and overcame a protest by a bidding group headed by Bechtel.
The Energy Department did not elaborate on the status of that process. The current contract held by CH2M Plateau Remediation Co. expires on Sept. 30, after a one-year extension last year.