Firm wins Yucca Mountain management contract

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy switched operators of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, awarding a $2.5 billion management contract today to a team headed by a unit of URS Corp., a major construction and engineering design firm.

USA Repository Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of San Francisco-based URS, was given a five-year contract, with an additional five one-year options that could carry through March 31, 2019, the department said.

The company will manage the program through upcoming license hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and into construction if a license is granted and if DOE can win sufficient funding from Congress and overcome other obstacles to build the storage site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"This contract will enable our national repository program to move forward by securing the necessary management and operations necessary as we begin the ... licensing proceedings," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in a statement.

DOE has projected a repository could begin accepting waste in 2020 under its best-case scenario. At the same time, officials have said that could be a long shot given anticipated budget struggles and legal and political opposition in Nevada.

The new management team includes two principal subcontractors -- Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure Inc., a Louisiana-based industrial construction firm, and nuclear fuels management specialist Areva Federal Services.

Both firms have worked previously as Yucca subcontractors, a DOE spokesman said. Also, Areva holds a contract, awarded in May, to develop transportation, aging and disposal waste canisters on the program.

USA Repository Services would replace Bechtel-SAIC, which has served as chief management contractor on the Yucca project since February 2001, and whose contract expires at the end of March 2009.

Bechtel SAIC had submitted a bid to continue its management role. Also applying was a team representing Babcock and Wilcox Co., Fluor and Energy Solutions.

"We are disappointed with the result but we are proud of what we have done here," Bechtel SAIC spokesman Jason Bohne said. "We have accomplished quite a lot on a program that is still of national importance."

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.