A solicitation for a massive contract worth up to $45 billion over 10 years for overseeing radioactive tank waste and running the vitrification plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state was released Thursday by the agency’s Office of Environmental Management.
The deal far exceeds the maximum value of any agreement on the major contracts list for the cleanup office and would require the winner to share more of the government business with small subcontractors.
Proposals on the megabuck contract are due before Christmas, on Sunday Dec. 20, according to the solicitation cover letter. Written questions on the request for proposals (RFP) are due just before 12 noon Eastern Time on Nov. 4 and should be emailed to [email protected].
A prior public estimate circulated by DOE for the Hanford Integrated Tank Disposition Contract request for proposals (RFP) was $26.5 billion for the indefinite delivery indefinite quantity agreement, one of the agency’s end-state model contracts.
One change from the draft RFP released in February is a provision increasing small business subcontracting requirements to 18% from 15% in the draft. DOE’s treatment of small business subcontractors at Hanford has been a subject of criticism in the past year as other major missions at the former plutonium production hub switched over to new contractors.
The maximum fee allowed in the contract is 15% and the minimum fee is, in theory, 0%, according to an RFP cost document. The contract period of 10 years includes a 90-day transition period, according to the performance work statement.This would have the transition starting around June 30, 2023, based upon the current incumbent expiration date of Sept. 30, 2023.
The DOE issued the bulk of the draft RFP in February for the high-dollar contract that combines the tank management business now held by Washington River Protection Solutions, an Amentum-Atkins team, with operation of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant being built by Bechtel. About 90 people representing 30 organizations, including nearly every big contractor in the weapons complex, attended an online meeting about the contract in April.
Employees at the Waste Treatment Completion Co., a Bechtel-Amentum company constructing the vitrification plant, should get incumbent-level hiring preference as they eventually work themselves out of a job, according to RFP documents.
Washington River Protection Solutions has held the contract for management of the 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste in 177 underground tanks since October 2008. Thanks to various extensions, the contract that is now valued at about $8 billion through September 2023.
A BWX Technologies-led team, Hanford Works Restoration group, briefly won a $13-billion contract in May 2020 to succeed Washington River as tank contractor at Hanford, but the decision was protested and DOE later withdrew the award and said it would combine the tank business with the Waste Treatment Plant operation. Bechtel is projected to start converting low-activity waste into a stable glass form by December 2023.
Bechtel’s contract to build the long-delayed vitrification plant began in December 2000 and is scheduled to expire in December 2022. The agreement is now valued at $14.7-billion.
Clare Rexroad is the Cincinnati-based DOE contracting officer on the RFP.
