AtkinsRéalis-led Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance this week asked the U.S. Court of Federal Claims for a permanent injunction blocking the Department of Energy from awarding a $45-billion liquid waste contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state to a BWX Technologies-led group.
The memorandum in support of judgment on the record was filed this week by Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance (HTDA), which also includes Jacobs and Westinghouse. A redacted version of the Claims Court filing was published in the court docket Thursday.
HTDA asks in the memorandum that the Federal Claims Court to “terminate” the Integrated Tank Disposition Contract issued to Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) made up of BWXT, Amentum and Fluor.
HTDA also asks the court to rule in its favor based on the administrative record.
“As when the parties were last before this court, H2C continues to be ineligible for award due to its unexcused failure to remain continuously registered in the System for Award Management,” or SAM.gov, according to the HTDA filing.
AtkinsRéalis and BWXT, the lead partners in HTDA and H2C respectively, declined comment Friday morning.
DOE awarded the liquid waste contract to the BWXT-led joint venture for the second time on Feb. 29, months after DOE decided SAM defects were a fixable error and instructed the two bidder groups to file revised proposals. The agency took that action after Federal Claims Judge Marian Blank Horn’s ruling last June the first award in April 2023 was improperly issued.
HTDA also argues DOE’s decision constituted a deviation from the SAM requirement that was rushed through without opportunity for comment by the public, or HTDA.
In this week’s claims court filing, HTDA said DOE’s SAM deviation amounts to “goalpost-moving.”
In August 2023, H2C appealed the Claims Court’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; that case is still live.
For its part, H2C contends it was picked because it offered the better value to the government. H2C also has said that HTDA’s own SAM filing was flawed.
In a heavily-redacted section of the 46-page filing in the claims court this week, HTDA questioned the quality of DOE’s cost realism analysis. The AtkinsRéalis-led venture argues DOE miscalculated each side’s probable cost of performing the contract. HTDA “had a probable cost advantage in the first year of performance,” according to the Thursday filing.
DOE would suffer little if any harm from an injunction, HTDA said. Just as DOE has done since HTDA protested the initial award in May 2023, the Office of Environmental Management can continue to use existing contracts.
Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions has the current tank management contract and Bechtel has the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant contract. The disputed follow-on contract would combine tank management with operation of the treatment plant, which will solidify at least some of that waste.
Since the first contract award to H2C, Amentum and the government contracting wing of Jacobs have unveiled a merger plan. With Amentum on the H2C team and Jacobs part of HTDA, the merged company seemed assured to have a piece of the eventual contract award.
