Protests prompt feds to rethink award of $13 billion Hanford contract
The federal government has dismissed appeals protesting the award of a $13 billion contract for Hanford tank waste work to a team headed by BWXT with Fluor Federal Services.
But that is not the end of the matter.
The Department of Energy decided to take corrective action, said Ralph White, the Government Accountability Office managing associate general counsel for procurement law. Protests of Hanford and other federal government contract awards by losing bidders are made to the GAO.
A corrective action is a government’s voluntary decision to address an issue in response to a protest, according to information on the GAO website.
“An agency’s corrective action may involve a re-evaluation of proposals, a new award decision, an amendment to a solicitation or other actions,” according to the GAO website. “We will typically dismiss a protest if an agency takes corrective action that resolves protest arguments or provides the relief sought by the protester.”
DOE said it could not discuss the matter because of the “ongoing procurement” for a Hanford tank waste contractor.
The 10-year-tank farm contract was the third recent multi-billion-dollar contract awarded at the DOE Hanford site to be appealed. But in both of the earlier cases decided by the GAO in the spring, the protests were denied rather than being dismissed.
That cleared the way for DOE to start the transitions to those new contracts, although the start of the transitions have been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The majority of Hanford workers are not reporting to the nuclear reservation to help contain the spread of the coronavirus. Many workers are telecommuting.
2 failed bidders protested
The December award of the tank farm contract was appealed in late May by two failed bidders, Tank Closure Partnership and Hanford Tank Closure Co.
Tank Closure Partnership is owned by Jacobs Government Services Co. Jacobs also is 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 under a soon-to-expire contract.
Hanford Tank Closure Co. is owned by Aecom Management, Fluor Federal Services and Atkins Nuclear Secured. It is the contracting team that was awarded the $10 billion contract in December for the new Hanford Central Plateau Cleanup Contract, which will continue the work of CH2M.
The Hanford nuclear reservation produced plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War.
Now about $2.5 billion is spent a year to clean up radioactive and other chemical contamination left from the production years.
At the center of the 580-square-mile 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 for storage until the waste can be treated for disposal.
It also will prepare some of the least radioactive waste in the tanks for treatment and deliver it to the site’s vitrification plant to be turned into a stable glass form for disposal.
The expiring Hanford tank farm contract is held by Washington River Protection Solutions, which is owned by Amentum, formerly Aecom, and Atkins. It employs about 2,350 workers.
One of the two previous Hanford contract protests that were denied this spring was for the $4 billion Hanford Mission Essential Services contract to provide site-wide services at the Hanford nuclear reservation, such as utilities, information technology, security and fire prevention.
The expiring contract is held by Mission Support Alliance and the new contractor is Mission Integration Solutions, owned by Leidos, Centerra and Parsons Government Services.
The other Hanford contract protest denied this spring was for the award of the $10 billion contract for central Hanford environmental cleanup to the Central Plateau Cleanup Co.
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 9:44 AM.