Feds propose new $27 billion contract to deal with Hanford radioactive waste

The Department of Energy has released its first look at its plan for a new contract worth as much as $26.5 billion at the Hanford nuclear reservation.

The proposed new contract would cover up to 10 years of work at the Hanford tank farms and add operation of the Hanford vitrification plant to the traditional tasks of the tank farm contract.

On Thursday, DOE released a draft copy of a request for bids for comments, with a plan to start requesting bids on the new contract in the summer. The document is called a draft request for proposals, or draft RFP.

Now Washington River Protection Solutions holds the tank farm contract at the Hanford site and Bechtel National has a contract to build and commission the $17 billion Waste Treatment Plant, or vit plant.

DOE faces a federal court-enforced deadline requiring the start of waste treatment at the vitrification plant by the end of 2023, although extra time is possible due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Operating the plant will require a new contract. And the current, expiring tank farm contract has been extended multiple times while DOE has attempted to award a new contract for the work.

DOE announced Thursday that it again plans to extend the contract, this time for up to two more years, from Oct. 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2023, while DOE awards a new contract.

Amentum, which owns Washington River Protection Solutions, had faced losing the tank farm contract after DOE awarded the contract to a team led by BWXT with Fluor Federal Services.

But after an appeal was filed over the choice of BWXT, DOE canceled the contract award.

The proposed 10-year contract, then for just work at the tank farms, was valued at up to $13 billion, about half the estimated value of the proposed new contract.

Contract type

Hanford in Eastern Washington was used from World War II through the Cold War to produce two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

Among the radioactive and other hazardous chemical waste left from the site’s production years is 56 million gallons of waste in underground tanks, many of them prone to leaking.

Construction started on the vitrification plant in 2002 to turn much of the tank waste into a stable glass form for permanent disposal.

The proposed new contract will use DOE’s new “end state” contracting model, under which DOE awards a contract and then negotiates specific tasks to be completed.

Tasks may be paid for either through the traditional Hanford method of reimbursing costs and paying incentive fees to allow the contractor to profit or by offering a fixed price for completion of work, shifting financial risk to the contractor.

The tasks will focus on providing the most reduction of risk and taxpayer costs and advancing environmental cleanup, DOE said.

Each task must have at least 15% of the work subcontracted to small businesses, according to the draft request for bids. DOE said the subcontracted work must be “meaningful.”

Selection of a new contractor will be based on an evaluation of each proposal’s leadership team, the companies’ past performance, the management approach and cost.

Contract work

The new contract will cover traditional tank farm operations, including emptying and closing single-shell tanks that are prone to leaks and making preparations to treat the tank waste at the vitrification plant.

The vit plant operating portion of the contract also will cover functions such as project management and safety and emergency services.

Extension of Washington River Protection Solutions’ contract will allow for work to continue uninterrupted to manage the waste storage tanks and to prepare to treat the waste at the vitrification plant until the new contract is in place. The contractor employs about 2,450 people.

Its work includes preparing a new tank-side system to separate out low activity waste from the high level waste in the tanks. Initially, the vit plant will treat only the least radioactive waste in the tanks, which accounts for about 90% of the volume in the tanks.

The value of the contract extension has yet to be negotiated.

Comments on the draft request for bids document can be emailed to HanfordITDC@emcbc.doe.gov until April 21.

On March 30 and April 1, DOE will offer site tours and one-on-one sessions with those interested in bidding on the new contract.

This story was originally published February 26, 2021 at 11:44 AM.