Thursday, Sep. 04, 2008

Lockheed Martin secures $3 billion for Hanford contract

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer

A team led by Lockheed Martin Integrated Technology has won a $3 billion contract to provide support services at the Hanford nuclear reservation for up to a decade, the Department of Energy announced Wednesday.

The winning team, a limited liability company called Mission Support Alliance, also includes Jacobs Engineering Group and Wackenhut Services.

The new mission support contract will cover services needed across the Hanford site such as security, fire protection, computer services and other information technology, utilities, training at HAMMER and road and railroad services.

Those services now are provided by Fluor Hanford under a contract that expires Oct. 1, but likely will be extended a few months.

The transition from Fluor Hanford to Mission Support Alliance will begin on or after Oct. 1, with Mission Support Alliance assuming full responsibility Jan. 1. The initial contract is for five years with options to extend it to 10 years to reach the full value of $3 billion.

It's the third of three prime contract awards for Hanford work that DOE had committed to make before the start of the next fiscal year, Oct. 1.

New cleanup contractors for central Hanford and the Hanford tank farms were named earlier.

Preselected subcontractors for the support services contract include Abadan, Akima Facilities Management, Dade Moeller & Associates, HPM, Longenecker and Associates, Protection Strategies, R.J. Lee Group, Vivid Learning Systems, Westech International, TestAmerica and Lampson International.

Lockheed Martin already has a strong presence at Hanford and in the Tri-Cities. It has provided information technology and records and content management at Hanford for 11 years.

Its Tri-City employees also do work for the Federal Aviation Administration, the Veterans Administration, the Social Security Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Among its best known civic projects here has been donating more than 2,000 laptops and computers to Washington State University Tri-Cities, Columbia Basin College and other Mid-Columbia organizations.

The other finalist for the contract was believed to be CSC, which stands for Computer Sciences Corp. It had teamed with Battelle, the operator of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland.

Frank Figueroa of Lockheed Martin has been named president of Mission Support Alliance. He's been Lockheed vice president of Hanford programs since 2007, and previously was the Lockheed vice president of the integrated enabling services strategic management unit at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.

He was named to the "Top Hispanics in Technology and Business" list for 2005 by Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology magazine and was the keynote speaker at the Hispanic Academic Achievers Program's scholarship ceremony in the Tri-Cities the next year.

The new contractor "will provide cost effective infrastructure and site services that are integral and necessary to accomplish the cleanup mission at Hanford," said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, in a statement.

"I am pleased that DOE has finally completed the process of awarding these three critical contracts," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in a statement. "This is an important step forward in the cleanup process and in providing more information to workers and the community on what lies ahead."

The Tri-City Development Council also is glad to have the contract awarded and relieve some of the stress for employees waiting to learn about their future at Hanford, said Carl Adrian, TRIDEC president. Lockheed has been a good community partner, as has Battelle, he said.

As is customary under Hanford contract changes, Mission Support Alliance will name its own management team, but much of the work will continue to be done by those now employed by Fluor Hanford.

Current workers who transfer to Mission Support Alliance will retain their traditional Hanford retirement and health care benefits. However, new employees will receive what DOE calls "market-based" pension and health insurance plans.

Mission Support Alliance plans to launch an Internet site by the end of the week with more information for Hanford workers and the community.