Saturday, May 10, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Major Yucca contract awarded
$29.7 million to design robotics to handle packages of nuclear waste
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Yucca Mountain Project managers announced the award of a major contract Friday to design robotics to handle heavy packages of nuclear waste as they are prepared for burial in the planned Nevada repository.
Cogema Inc. won a $29.7 million bid for work it will be expected to perform over the next 4 1/2 years, according to Bechtel SAIC, the main operating contractor for the Energy Department program.
The contract is the first big prize tied to the design and construction of the repository complex, project officials said.
Cogema's bid raised eyebrows in some circles when it became known last month because it is a subsidiary of a French-owned consortium, the AREVA Group.
New York Times columnist William Safire among others questioned whether Cogema should be rewarded since France did not support the U.S. war in Iraq.
Concerning those views, "we haven't responded to that. We are a U.S. company," said Dorothy Davidson, a spokeswoman for Cogema, which is headquartered in Bethesda, Md.
Cogema and Bechtel officials could not yet say what types of jobs and how many may be tied to the design project.
Cogema prevailed in a technical evaluation against two other bidders, Bechtel President John Mitchell said in a statement. "Its proposal was superior in key performance areas critical to the Yucca Mountain Project and offered the best value," he said.
Bechtel declined to identify the other bidders pending meetings with them next week, according to spokeswoman Beatrice Reilly.
"We are going to be making thousands of procurements for goods and services over the next four or five years, and many will be for millions of dollars," Reilly said.
The total cost of the repository program is estimated above $58 billion, if it is able to overcome numerous technical, political, financial and legal challenges and get a burial complex built by DOE's stated goal of 2010.
Cogema is a major supplier to the nuclear industry, with particular experience operating "dry handling" facilities for nuclear waste.
Reilly said the company will plan and design machinery that will allow highly radioactive spent fuel assemblies to be prepared for burial at the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas "so that there will be no human contact."
