With federal courts already involved, the Government Accountability Office will not consider an Atkins-led group’s challenge of a $45-billion Department of Energy award to manage liquid radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
“We dismiss the protest because the matter involved is the subject of litigation before a court of competent jurisdiction,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in its Dec. 21 order rejecting the challenge by the AtkinsRéalis Nuclear Secured-led team, Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance.
An unsealed copy of the GAO order was part of a Dec. 27 status report to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The case has also been appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by the awardee, BWX-Technologies-led Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure.
“Here, we agree with the agency that a decision issued by the Federal Circuit could render academic any decision issued by our office,” according to the Dec. 21 ruling signed by GAO General Counsel Edda Emmanuelli Perez.
Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, made up of BWXT, Amentum and Fluor, won the potential 10-year, $45-billion contract in April 2023. The losing group promptly challenged the award in federal claims court, bypassing the common step of a protest with GAO.
U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Marian Blank Horn agreed with the losing Atkins-led team that Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure’s award was improper because the winner failed to stay registered in a government procurement tracking system.
Horn sent the award back to DOE. Upon further review, an agency contracting officer said the BWXT-led group’s failure to stay continuously registered with the System for Award Management was a minimal, correctable error.
The Atkins group, which also includes Jacobs and Westinghouse, said the DOE’s change “unreasonably amended the solicitation to favor Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure.” Both teams submitted revised offers to DOE in late October, according to the order.
Ultimately the dispute will be decided in court, according to the GAO order.
“Even where the issues before the court are not the same as those raised in our office by a protester or are brought by a party other than the protester, we will not consider the protest if the court’s disposition of the matter would render a decision by our office academic.”
The winner of the prized contract will oversee 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous tank waste left over from decades of plutonium production at Hanford.