More time needed for new Savannah River Site security contractor to begin work

Jul. 14—It will take more time for the new paramilitary security services contractor to begin work at the Savannah River Site.

The Department of Energy announced Wednesday afternoon that it plans to extend its contract with Centerra Group LLC to provide paramilitary security services at the Savannah River Site for up to 24 months.

The Department of Energy's Johnsell Christian said in the notice that the extension with Centerra will allow for successful transition to the next paramilitary security services contractor, SRS Critical Infrastructure Security, at the site.

The Centerra extension includes a four-month base with five optional four-month extensions. The value of the contract extension is not immediately clear.

The extension is the latest extension in a series of extensions that have been added as the responsibility for paramilitary security services transitions to SRS Critical Infrastructure Security.

Those extensions began in May 2020 when the Department of Energy announced that it planned to extend Centerra's contract for four months beginning in October 2020 with two additional four-month extension options that ran to Oct. 7, 2021.

However, on Feb. 12, 2021, the Department of Energy announced that it had awarded a potentially $1 billion contract of up to 10 years to SRS Critical Infrastructure Security LLC to provide paramilitary security services at the site to begin when the Centerra contract expired in October 2021.

SRS Criticial Infrastructure Security LLC is a joint venture that includes Securitas CIS, Inc., K2 Solutions, Inc., Spectra Tech, Inc. and System Studies & Simulation, Inc. (S3I) / Kachemak Bay Flying Service (KBFS).

But, protests from Centerra and another bidder on the contract and the implementation of recommendations from the Government Accountability Office delayed SRS Critical Infrastructure Security's takeover of the contract, and the Centerra contract was extended until Oct. 7.