DOE meeting set to seek bids for Yucca program

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy said Monday it will seek bids for a contract worth millions of dollars to manage the Yucca Mountain program into the next decade.

The department set meetings for later this month in Las Vegas for potential bidders to review a proposed work plan that would include helping DOE defend a construction license application, and oversee all facets of the nuclear waste repository proposed to be built 100 miles northwest of the city.

The contract for current manager Bechtel SAIC Co. expires at the end of March 2009. DOE spokesman Allen Benson said DOE holds two one-year options to extend the firm's contract. Or it could decide to activate a new contract that would carry into the next decade, when DOE hopes to have gone through Nuclear Regulatory Commission safety reviews and overcome determined opponents in Nevada, to build an underground tunnel complex to hold 70,000 metric tons of highly radioactive waste.

Bechtel SAIC is eligible to submit a bid to continue on the project, Benson added. DOE has scheduled meetings for potential bidders on Feb. 26, 27 and 28.

"This is just the beginning of the process," Benson said. "This is a procurement strategy that brings us to the next phase of the program."

Nuclear Fuel Cycle Monitor, a trade newsletter, reported DOE was pursuing a "multi-contract" strategy. The winning bidder would help the department integrate a number of contracts to build the repository and nuclear waste-handling facilities.

The Energy Department indicated Monday it also is in the process of seeking a construction manager for a planned 300-mile railroad across rural Nevada to the repository site.

The department also said it will award multiple railroad design and construction contracts. No timetable was given. DOE managers have said the rail segment of the Yucca program likely will be delayed because of budget cuts.

A Bechtel SAIC spokesman said the firm was reviewing the government's requirements that were laid out in a 75-page work statement and other documents posted to the Internet on Monday.

"We have not had a chance to take a look at it and decide where we are going," spokesman Jason Bohne said. "We have a contract and we are going to fulfill that contract."

Bechtel SAIC was named the Yucca management contractor in November 2000, and was awarded a contract worth $3.1 billion. The contract has been renegotiated several times since then as the project has been delayed and reorganized, with its latest value estimated to be $2.4 billion.

At the time the contract was awarded, it was believed a Yucca repository would be completed and nuclear waste would be arriving at the site by 2010. Latest official estimates put a repository opening at 2020 or later.