The Department of Energy on Wednesday issued a request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice for the next stage in cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management is officially calling this “Phase 1B” of deactivating and tearing down buildings at West Valley, plus conducting soil remediation.
The $542 million Phase 1 contract held by a CH2M-BWX Technologies joint venture, which started in August 2011, expires in March 2020. The Energy Department, in the RFI, is seeking feedback on innovative approaches that might accelerate the ultimate completion of cleanup.
While this is not a draft request for proposals, the market research will provide DOE with key data as it goes forward with an upcoming procurement.
A detailed statement of the work to be performed under the next contract is not available yet, DOE said. The RFI does invite contractors to describe their ability and experience in federal environmental remediation work, and their background in dealing with employee retirement plans.
During Phase 1, the current contractor has led remediation, torn down buildings, while also working on removal of radioactive waste, and contaminated equipment components.
Jodi Gordon ([email protected]) is the contracting officer for the upcoming procurement. Responses to the RFI should be emailed by close of business on Nov. 1 to [email protected].
The Energy Department has not yet indicated when it would begin accepting bids on the next contract. A spokesman for CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) declined to comment on whether the vendor plans to pursue the follow-on award.
One major building scheduled for future demolition, possibly starting in late 2019, is the Chemical Process Cell-Waste Storage Area, CHBWV spokesman Joseph Pillittere said.
The contractor last month finished tearing down the site’s vitrification plant, which between 1999 and 2002 solidified 600,000 gallons of liquid waste.
Also last month, the House of Representatives passed legislation to reauthorize the West Valley Demonstration Project. The measure, which is still awaiting action in the Senate, calls for $75 million in annual federal funding for cleanup through 2028. The measure also calls for the Government Accountability Office to prepare a report on radioactive waste at the site. The study would be due within 18 months of passage and would analyze types of wastes and disposal options at West Valley.
The Energy Department does not consider the waste to be defense-related because the privately operated firm Nuclear Fuel Services did the reprocessing work.
Owned by the state, the property takes up 200 acres of the 3,300-acre Western New York Nuclear Service Center. The site was home to a commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant from 1966 to 1972. In 1980, Congress put DOE in charge of remediation and placed 90 percent of the funding burden on the federal agency, with the remainder paid by the state.
Completion of Phase 1 is currently expected by 2030, a decade longer than DOE and the state envisioned in an environmental impact statement issued in 2010.
The total Environmental Management life-cycle cost for West Valley is estimated at just under $1.9 billion to slightly over $2 billion, with completion forecast from 2040 to 2045.
