Three teams are believed to be vying for the 10-year, $13 billion Tank Closure Contract at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to an industry source.
Proposals by vendor teams hoping to succeed AECOM-led Washington River Protection Solutions were due March 21. The Energy Department is scheduled to hear oral presentations by mid-April from the bidders.
The bidders, the source said last week, are: an Atkins-AECOM partnership; a Fluor-BWXT venture; and a Jacobs-Honeywell team, possibly featuring Perma-Fix Environmental Services.
Atkins, a U.S. affiliate of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin, is currently the junior partner in WRPS but this time around it appears to be the lead, the source said. The procurement comes as SNC-Lavalin is under investigation in Canada for allegedly bribing Libyan government officials in an effort to win business in that country. If found culpable the parent could be suspended from Canadian government business, but observers have said the scandal should not hobble Atkins.
Perma-Fix is part of a joint venture that in January won a $4.8 DOE million contract for the second phase of the Test Bed Initiative for processing low-level radioactive tank waste from Hanford. It involves 2,000 gallons of low-level liquid waste from a double-shell tank, sending the waste to a Perma-Fix treatment facility for solidification into a possibly grout-like form before it is shipped to West Texas for disposal.
Perma-Fix President and CEO Mark Duff recently declined to provide any details on his company’s possible involvement in major procurements at Hanford. “We’re involved in procurement and therefore we can’t tell you anything about the procurement itself, who are we teamed with or anything,” Duff said April 1 during the company’s latest earnings call.
The new vendor will gradually move from concentrating on management to closure of 177 underground tanks holding 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste at Hanford. Washington River Protection Solutions, which started work on the $6.8 billion contract in October 2008, is operating under a one-year extension through September.