The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management on Wednesday released the final request for proposals for the potential $6.4 billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract.
The solicitation covers environmental remediation at the Idaho National Laboratory, as well as spent fuel management there and at the retired Fort Saint Vrain nuclear power plant near Platteville, Colo.
The new contract would replace two separate agreements due to expire next spring — Fluor Idaho’s nearly $2 billion, five-year environmental remediation award that runs through May 2021 and Spectra Tech’s roughly five-year, $45 million spent fuel contract that extends through March 2021.
The agency issued a draft RFP and conducted industry briefings and site tours in February – before the federal government stopped doing most in-person gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The industry day attracted representatives from nuclear waste management and cleanup contractors such as Amentum, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, EnergySolutions, Jacobs, Navarro Research and Engineering, North Wind Group, Veolia, and Westinghouse.
The new award will be an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract with a 10-year ordering period, although the actual work could last 15 years, a DOE spokesperson said. Tasks will include running the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, which Fluor Idaho expects to bring online this year, along with decommissioning and demolishing structures and preparing and shipping transuranic waste for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
Generally speaking, the work focuses on reducing risks to workers, the public, and the environment, and protecting the Snake River Plain Aquifer, which sustains Idaho’s agricultural industry.
Asked whether Fluor would bid to keep the work, a spokeswoman said Wednesday the company prefers not to comment on potential pursuit of specific procurements. Fluor Idaho, though, has hinted previously it is interested in staying on the job. “We are proud of our performance on the Idaho Cleanup Project and are reviewing the details in the draft RFP,” a company spokesman said in February.
Questions on the final RFP are due by 11:59 p.m. ET on June 10 and should be emailed to [email protected]. Proposals must be submitted by July 28.
The winner will be selected based on factors such as key personnel, past performance, management approach, and cost. In the RFP material, DOE said among other things it will look at past performance over the past four years, including fee determination reports.
As a procurement under the “end state” model, DOE Environmental Management can select the vendor based upon the most attractive proposals for tasks to be carried out in the opening year or two, without having to evaluate a work-plan for the entire length of the contract. The agency has said the approach gives it more flexibility to negotiate more up-to-date work plans to address funding and environmental needs.
The minimum value of the contract is $500,000 and the ceiling is $6.4 billion– depending upon how many tasks are successfully carried out.
Based on current funding projections, yearly DOE spending on the contract could range from a low of $121 million in fiscal 2021 to a high of $475 million in fiscal 2036.
The contract will include a 90-day transition period.
Inspector General Finds Weakness in Energy Department Quality Assurance of IWTU
A recently posted audit by the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General says the agency’s operations office in Idaho should have provided better quality assurance on the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit.
The facility is designed to treat 900,000 gallons of liquid radioactive sodium-bearing waste, which will be packaged into stainless-steel canisters that will be held in above-ground vaults.
The contractor that built the IWTU, CH2M-WG Idaho, could not get the facility to operate properly at the planned startup in June 2012. Many design changes and tweaks have been made since then. Fluor Idaho took over the project in 2016, when it succeeded CH2M-WG Idaho as cleanup contractor at the lab. Buoyed by encouraging trial runs in the past year, Fluor Idaho expects to start operating the IWTU by the end of the year.
The IG found weak quality assurance by DOE officials in Idaho contributed to missed deadlines that increased costs for the facility over the years. Poor evaluations of suppliers increase the chances of receiving items that do not meet quality standards and need to be replaced.
The Office of Inspector General said DOE failed to properly vet procurements for various types of equipment, ranging from steel-enforced bars to gear designed to protect workers from radioactive hazards.
While the audit does not list instances where supplies had to be re-bid, it does draw a link between weak oversight and problems with the troubled IWTU: “Currently, the IWTU is still not operational and more than 7 years behind schedule.” Better oversight should “help minimize further delays” and assist DOE in meeting its cleanup goals at Idaho National Laboratory, according to the IG.
During the past year a Government Accountability Office report put total cost of the facility at about $1 billion, with more than $400 million spent since 2012.
In addition, the IG found Fluor Idaho and CWI did not always effectively evaluate suppliers of safety-significant items. The two contractors sometimes agreed to hire subcontractors to provide equipment such as radiation protection gear before sufficiently vetting them.
Energy Department officials in Idaho “did not initially provide sufficient depth to ensure Fluor Idaho and CWI effectively implemented their approved quality assurance programs,” according to the IG report.
The DOE Idaho Operations Office agreed with inspector general’s findings and has already made improvements to its oversight, according to the audit. It noted that the local DOE office turned up many of the same conclusions in an internal review conducted during 2017 and 2018.