$13 billion Hanford contract award halted after protests by losing bidders

Two appeals have been filed with the Government Accountability Office over the award of a 10-year, $13 billion contract for Hanford tank waste work.

The Department of Energy awarded the contract May 14 to a team headed by BWXT with Fluor Federal Services. Primary subcontracts on the team are Intera and DBD of Richland.

The protests over the award were filed by Tank Closure Partnership and Hanford Tank Closure Co.

Tank Closure Partnership is owned by Jacobs Government Services Co., the owner of CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., the contractor that has been doing central Hanford and groundwater cleanup at the nuclear reservation for 11 years.

Hanford Tank Closure Co., owned by Aecom Management, Fluor Federal Services and Atkins Nuclear Secured, is the contracting team that was awarded the $10 billion contract in December for the new Hanford Central Plateau Cleanup Contract.

The contract continues much of the work being done under the expiring CH2M contract.

Amentum, formerly Aecom, and Atkins hold the expiring tank farm contract, with work being done by about 2,350 workers under Washington River Protection Solutions

The appeals of the new tank farm contract, called the Tank Closure Contract, were both filed on Wednesday and posted Thursday on the GAO website.

The agency is required to make a decision by Sept. 4.

“This protest could impact the start of transition to the new contractor for an uncertain amount of time, as the Government Accountability Office evaluates the filing,” said John Eschenberg, chief executive at Washington River Protection Solutions, in a message to staff.

“This news may add to the uncertainty many of us already face given the current situation,” he said. “However, contract transition is a normal part of government work. We can expect this process will play out naturally over the next few months to an appropriate resolution.”

The $10 billion contract for central Hanford cleanup awarded in December and the $4 billion Hanford support services contract, both were protested, with the GAO denying the appeals.

However, the transition period to those new contracts has not begun as work being done at the Hanford site has been delayed to limit the spread of the new coronavirus.

Only workers considered essential to safety of the environment, workers and public were on site for about nine weeks, with a slow ramp up of work beginning this week.

About 60% of the site’s 11,000 workers have been telecommuting.

The Hanford nuclear reservation produced plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War. Now abut $2.5 billion is spent a year to cleanup radioactive and other chemical contamination left from the production years.

At the center of the site are 177 underground tanks holding 56 million gallons of radioactive waste.

The new tank farm contractor will empty leak-prone single shell tanks into newer double shell tanks. It also will prepare some of the low-activity waste in the tanks for treatment and deliver it to the site’s vitrification plant.

This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 12:24 PM.