Fluor Idaho, the cleanup contractor for the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, will serve as mentor to an engineering services firm in Idaho Falls.
The remediation contractor announced in a Tuesday press release that it signed a mentor-protégé agreement with Walsh Engineering Services.
The owner and president of Walsh Engineering Services, Mark Pope, said in the release that the arrangement enables his firm to keep its core staff on the job while strengthening his company’s ability to compete for future federal business.
“Fluor Idaho has access to our 123 technical professionals, many of whom have extensive experience at Idaho Cleanup Project facilities and processes,” Pope said, adding that Walsh in turn will gain valuable information and training from Fluor Idaho’s project management and scheduling systems.
Pope bought Walsh Engineering less than two years ago after working as a design engineer at the Idaho National Laboratory for 20 years. The small firm employs architects, draftsmen and project managers with experience at several nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the DOE Office of Environmental Management.
“This Department of Energy program creates a unique partnership between us and the small business that provides the technical services that we desire,” said Fluor Idaho’s small business liaison Jennifer Lloyd.
The DOE mentor-protégé program operates separately from the Small Business Administration, but is designed to help small and disadvantaged firms develop a relationship with big contractors, and break into the Department of Energy procurement market.
The Fluor affiliate has a $2-billion contract for remediation at the Idaho National Laboratory. The contract started in June 2016 and runs through May 2021. The DOE issued a request for proposals for a new Fluor contract in May.
