The Government Accountability Office on Thursday denied a challenge by a Huntington Ingalls Industries-led group to Bechtel’s potential $3 billion management contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, which the Department of Energy awarded in July.
Huntington-led National TRU Solutions of Newport News, Va. challenged the 10-year contract award to Bechtel’s Tularosa Basin Range Services, of Reston, Va., for the disposal of transuranic nuclear waste at DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) located outside of Carlsbad, N.M.
The protest “alleged that the evaluation of key personnel and past performance was unreasonable, asserted that the agency improperly evaluated the role of the awardee’s proposed affiliate, and argued that the agency engaged in improper discussions,” said Government Accountability Office (GAO) managing associate General counsel for procurement, Kenneth Patton.
“GAO considered each of [National TRU Solutions] allegations, and found them to have no merit,” Patton went on to say in an emailed statement to Exchange Monitor. At the time of the protest, sources tell Exchange Monitor that Atkins is a minority partner with Huntington Ingalls in National TRU Solutions.
The Office of General Counsel considers whether government agencies have complied with procurement laws and regulations, Patton said. “Today’s decision was issued under a protective order because the decision may contain proprietary or source selection sensitive information.”
It is common GAO practice to post a public version of its decision once it is scrubbed of any business secrets, which typically takes several days. When a public version of the decision is available, it will be posted to www.gao.gov.
GAO has not yet ruled upon the second challenge to the WIPP prime contract. Carlsbad Operations Alliance, a joint venture led by Westinghouse, filed the second bid protest.
WIPP, the United States only underground disposal site for defense transuranic waste, is currently managed and operated for DOE by Nuclear Waste Partnership, a team of Amentum and BWX Technologies.
The current team has run WIPP since April 2012 under business currently valued at $2.9 billion. The Amentum-led incumbent was in charge at the time of a February 2014 underground radiation leak that forced the disposal site to suspend operation for about three years.
Bechtel declined comment on the decision and Huntington Ingalls did not immediately respond to a request for comment.