Hanford contractor to stay for another year, feds announce 6 days before contract expires

The Hanford tank farm contractor will work a 13th year on its 10-year contract, after the Department of Energy announced a year-long extension Thursday.

Financial terms are still being negotiated.

The contract, after earlier extensions, was set to expire in six days. About 2,350 workers are employed under the contract.

DOE is taking action to address an issue in response to a protest filed with the General Accountability Office by a losing bidder over its award of a new $13 billion, 10-year contract for Hanford tank waste work to a team headed by BWXT with Fluor Federal Services.

DOE and the GAO have not said what issue was raised or what action DOE plans to take.

Protests were filed by a bidding team led by Jacobs Government Services Co. and another team owned by Amentum, Fluor Federal Services and Atkins Nuclear Secured.

The contract extension will keep work progressing at the Hanford nuclear reservation’s tank farms uninterrupted while issues with the new contract award are resolved.

The Hanford site has 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste in underground tanks from the production of plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War. Some of the tanks are leaking or are prone to leaking.

In the year ahead, Washington River Protection Solutions plans to empty single-shell tanks, upgrade infrastructure, inspect tank interiors and build a ground cover to prevent precipitation from reaching contaminated soil in a tank farm and driving the contamination closer to groundwater.

The current contract is held by Amentum with Atkins.