Y-12 National Security Complex (Submitted photo)
A second protest has been filed challenging the federal decision to award a five-year contract to Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC to manage and operate the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.
The second protest was filed Jan. 25 by Integrated Nuclear Production Solutions LLC.
The first was filed Jan. 17 by Nuclear Production Partners LLC, a team led by Babcock and Wilcox.
Keith Stephens, a spokesman for Fluor, said the second team includes Fluor and Jacobs. Stephens referred questions to Michelle Jones, a spokeswoman for Jacobs, but Jones did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday afternoon.
The protests have been filed with the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The GAO must rule on the first protest by Nuclear Production Partners LLC within 100 days.
The first protest has stopped the transition to the new contractor, Consolidated Nuclear Security, or CNS, which was awarded the consolidated contract on Jan. 8. CNS had been scheduled to take over operations at Y-12 and Pantex on May 1.
“The transition is paused by law until the protest is resolved,” said Josh McConaha, public affairs director for the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Y-12 has been operated by B&W Y-12, a partnership of the Babcock and Wilcox Company, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., and Bechtel Corporation, for 12 years. Pantex is managed and operated by Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Pantex LLC. Bechtel, which has operational headquarters in Reston, Va., is a partner on that project as well.
CNS includes Bechtel National Inc. and Lockheed Martin Services Inc. The team also includes ATK Launch Systems Inc. and SOC LLC. Besides managing and operating Y-12 and Pantex, CNS is also expected to manage construction of the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 and could manage tritium operations at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.
Its contract has options that could allow it to be extended up to five years. Including the possible tritium work, the contract has a total available fee of up to $446 million for CNS to manage the three sites for the NNSA and the U.S. Department of Energy. CNS may also earn up to an extra $263 million as their share of savings.
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