Cincinnati - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a contract on June 18, 2015 to North Wind Solutions, LLC for support services at the Oak Ridge Transuranic Waste Processing Center (TWPC) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The total potential period of performance is 5-years, with a 3-year base period and one, 2-year option period. The total dollar value of this award is $123.9 Million (including all options).

Protests of the contract award were filed by Aerostar Perma-Fix TRU Services LLC (“APT Services”), Omega TRU Solutions, LLC (“OTS”), and ARS EnergX, LLC (“ARE”) with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on July 6, 2015, July 7, 2015, and July 13, 2015, respectively. The protests by OTS and ARE were later withdrawn. On October 8, 2015, the GAO issued a decision denying the APT Services protest and DOE is now prepared to start transition to the primarily Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) contract.

In an effort to better align Contractor and taxpayer interests, the contract contains FFP and Cost-Plus-Award-Fee (CPAF) Contract Line Items (CLINs), as well as an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) CLIN. The primarily FFP nature of the contract will allow DOE to shift cost risk from the Government to the Contractor during execution of the contract requirements.

The Contractor shall safely and compliantly manage and operate the Oak Ridge TWPC Category II nuclear facility in support of processing EM legacy TRU waste; perform surveillance and maintenance activities; provide support to the Central Characterization Project for final certification and disposition of TRU soil and debris waste; process other Remote Handled /Contact Handled TRU waste originating from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and process Nuclear Fuel Services soils.

The DOE Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) consists of about 34,500 acres of three major industrial complexes located in separate but adjacent valleys: the K-25 site [East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP)], the X-10 site (ORNL), and the Y-12 site. The TWPC is located within an approximately 26-acre area of land owned by the DOE in support of the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM).

The mission of the Office of Environmental Management is to complete the safe cleanup of the environmental legacy brought about from five decades of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. -