More than 10 months ago the Department of Energy published its final solicitation for a new $6.4-billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract with a 10-year ordering period and industry sources are keeping watch.
Bid proposals for the environmental work around the Idaho National Laboratory were due last July.
The two incumbents, Fluor Idaho has the five-year, $2.1-billion remediation business while Spectra Tech has a deal valued at $49-million for spent fuel management for roughly the same period, and both agreements are scheduled to sunset by May 31, according to a summary of DOE Office of Environmental Management contracts.
There is a 90-day transition period included in the final request for proposals.
Typically, if DOE is not ready to make an award it will just extend the current providers, so in that sense it is not a big deal, an industry source said Tuesday by phone. At the same time, it is “frustrating” for the bidders, because “you have got to tie up these key personnel and pay them,” until there is a decision, the source added.
Dozens of individuals showed up for a site tour and industry briefings on the RFP in February 2020, with those attending including representatives from major contractors such as Amentum, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, EnergySolutions, Jacobs, Navarro Research and Engineering, North Wind Group, Veolia, and Westinghouse.
Work under the contract includes operating the long-delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit and treating sodium-bearing waste, protection of the Snake River Plain Aquifer, tearing down old decaying facilities and packaging and shipping legacy transuranic waste from the Idaho National Laboratory to DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
