B&W-led team files new protest over Y-12, Pantex contract

The Babcock and Wilcox Company announced Monday that Nuclear Production Partners LLC, or NP2, has filed a new protest with the Government Accountability Office related to the combined management and operating contract at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

“NP2 has expressed concern over the fairness of the procurement and selection process and the form and scope of the revised request for proposals issued to bidders on June 6,” a press release said.

“B&W and our NP2 team have expressed a number of ongoing concerns related to this procurement process,” said George Dudich, president of Babcock and Wilcox Technical Services Group Inc. “We are asking the Government Accountability Office to examine the fairness of the revised request for proposals and to ensure the RFP meets all government contracting requirements and fully addresses the GAO’s original decision and recommendation outlined on April 29, 2013, when our original protest was sustained.”

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced in May that it would request more information from the three teams that had submitted bids on the consolidated contract to manage and operate Y-12 and Pantex. That announcement came after the GAO announced at the end of April that it had partially upheld protests filed by NP2, of Lynchburg, Va., and Integrated Nuclear Production Solutions LLC, of Oak Ridge, raising questions about the proposed savings. The GAO recommended that the procurement be re-opened, more information requested from the bidders about their proposed cost savings, and the relative size of each team’s proposed cost savings evaluated.

In January, the NNSA announced it had awarded a contract valued at about $23 billion to Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, or CNS, to manage and operate Y-12 and Pantex. The two losing teams, NP2 and Integrated Nuclear Production Solutions LLC, filed protests later that month.

Babcock and Wilcox is the current lead managing and operating contractor at Y-12 and Pantex. Also part of the NP2 team are URS, Northrop Grumman, and Honeywell.

The Integrated Nuclear Production Solutions team includes Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. and Fluor Federal Services Inc.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Note: This story was updated at 7:37 p.m.