National TRU Solutions, a joint venture led by Huntington Ingalls Industries, filed a bid protest Tuesday challenging the Department of Energy’s selection of a Bechtel entity for a contract worth up to $3 billion to operate the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.

A notice of the TRU Solutions bid protest is posted on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) website.

On July 11, the DOE Office of Environmental Management announced it had chosen Bechtel’s Tularosa Basin Range Services, doing business as Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, over four other bidders for the contract to manage the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the nation’s only underground disposal site for transuranic waste.

Multiple sources said Wednesday National TRU Solutions is led by Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII). Sources said other partners in National TRU might include either Atkins or BWX Technologies. An HII subsidiary and BWXT are already partners in the contractor team in charge of legacy cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B).

A Huntington Ingalls Industries spokesperson declined to comment Wednesday morning.  

Sources said DOE began debriefs late last week for contractor teams that bid on the WIPP prime contract, now held by Nuclear Waste Partnership, an Amentum-BWXT venture. Debriefs are said to be continuing this week and TRU Solutions is the first party to challenge the Bechtel group’s selection.

Bid protests are typically due to GAO within 10 days after a party learns of a basis to challenge an award and tend to occur within a couple of days after receiving a debriefing.

The GAO seeks to rule on bid protests within 100 calendar days, which would translate to about Nov. 3.