Feds to extend Hanford contract another 2 years after court rejects $45B award

Annette Cary
·3 min read

The Department of Energy plans to extend the contract for work at the Hanford tank farms for up to two years after a challenge to the latest contract award at the nuclear reservation site in Eastern Washington.

The contract for Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) was set to expire at the end of September.

WRPS, a limited liability corporation owned by Amentum and Atkins, with Orano as its prime subcontractor, started work in May 2008 on a contract awarded for up to 10 years in May 2008.

But multiple extensions, including the one announced Wednesday, could extend its work to more than 17 years. The monetary value of the latest contract extension has not been determined.

“This is an opportunity to build on the last 15 years of progress,” said Wes Bryan, WRPS president, in a message to employees Wednesday.

It also provides some job security for existing employees, particularly higher level employees who may not transfer to a new contractor, and is a financial opportunity for WRPS’s owners.

DOE has twice awarded new contracts for tank farm work as WRPS’s contract has been set to expire.

It manages 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste stored in underground tanks, some of them prone to leaking. WRPS is emptying waste from the oldest tanks into newer tanks for storage until it can be treated.

Washington River Protection Solutions will continue to manage 56 million gallons of radioactive waste held in underground tanks at the Hanford site until as late as September 2025.
Washington River Protection Solutions will continue to manage 56 million gallons of radioactive waste held in underground tanks at the Hanford site until as late as September 2025.

It also is preparing some of the least radioactive waste in the tanks to be sent to the vitrification plant for treatment, when the plant begins operating.

The waste is left from the past production of plutonium from World War II through the Cold War for the nation’s nuclear weapons program at the site adjacent to Richland, Wash.

Both previous awards faced challenges.

Past tank contract awards

Most recently, DOE had combined the work at the tank farms with the initial operation of the vitrification plant, which is expected to begin turning low activity radioactive waste into a stable glass form for disposal by late 2024 or 2025.

In April, DOE awarded a $45 billion contract with some work that could extend for 15 years to Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure, called, H2C, which is a joint venture of BWXT Technical Services Group, Amentum Environment & Energy and Fluor Federal Services.

But the losing bidder, Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance, or HTDA, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. HTDA is owned by Atkins Nuclear Secured, Jacobs Technology and Westinghouse Government Services.

Environmental cleanup is underway at the 580-square-mile Hanford nuclear reservation. The underground radioactive waste storage tanks and the vitrification plant are in the center of the site.
Environmental cleanup is underway at the 580-square-mile Hanford nuclear reservation. The underground radioactive waste storage tanks and the vitrification plant are in the center of the site.

A federal judge agreed with HTDA and ordered the contract award to be set aside. H2C had not met a contract requirement to be continuously registered in a federal database, the System for Award Management, after it bid on the contract.

Judge Marian Blank Horn ordered DOE to reconsider bids from both HTDA and H2C.

Previously, DOE had awarded a $13 billion, 10-year contract in May 2020 for just the tank farm work to Hanford Works Restoration, a team of BWXT with Fluor Federal Services.

Two appeals were filed by losing bidders with the Government Accountability Office within days and the contract award was halted.

The GAO dismissed the appeals in July as DOE said it would voluntarily take corrective actions over issues that DOE declined to discuss.

At the end of 2020 DOE permanently canceled the contract award and announced plans to release a new solicitation for bids that also included the start of vitrification plant operations.

Bryan said WRPS will continue under the contract extension to retrieve waste from a second group of underground tanks, upgrade key facilities used to manage radioactive waste and prepare more waste for treatment at the vitrification plant.