Info: DOE Clean-up Contracts

[Bruce Busby <bbusby@umich.edu>]

Hi all,

Here is another news item that I thought the general radsafers might be
interested in. The could actually mean some new jobs also. Might be a good
time to send the companies listed below a new resume and start networking.

-Bruce Busby


 WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The Energy Department Tuesday said it  
awarded nearly $11 billion in contracts to clean up and manage 
nuclear waste from weapons programs. 
	 Fluor Daniel Hanford Inc., a subsidiary of Fluor Daniel/GTI  
Inc., was awarded a $4.88 billion contract to oversee cleanup of 
the Energy Department's Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., where 
plutonium was produced for weapons. The contract had an option 
for a $4.68 billion five-year extension. 
	 The Energy Department also awarded a $6 billion contract to  
Westinghouse Electric Corp. as prime contractor to manage the 
Savannah River nuclear facility in South Carolina. Westinghouse 
was the only bidder on the work. 
	 The department also said it plans to seek competitive bids  
for $8 billion of work at its Oak Ridge, Tenn., laboratory and 
weapons complex site, which is currently managed under contracts 
with Lockheed Martin Corp. that expire in March 1998. 
	 The newly awarded contracts ensure that the companies will  
be paid a fee only if they achieve specific results, such as 
cleaning up a contaminated site by a specific date, the 
department said. 
	 ``Before contract reform, DOE (Department of Energy) paid  
for simply showing up. Not anymore. If contractors don't deliver 
on their commitments, we don't deliver on their fee,'' Energy 
Secretary Hazel O'Leary said in a statement. 
	 At Hanford, Fluor Daniel and subcontractors are to stabilize  
plutonium by December 1999, remove sludge and debris that pose a 
contamination risk to the Columbia River and downstream 
communities by June 2000, clean and stabilize tanks of nuclear 
waste that pose the site's most severe risk by December 2001, 
and deactivate the weapons plant by 2005. 
	 Competing with Fluor Daniel for the Hanford contract were  
Bechtel Northwest Corp. and Raytheon Co.'s Raytheon Hanford Inc. 
	 At Savannah River, Westinghouse is to oversee conversion of  
high-level nuclear waste into glass for safer storage, as well 
as stabilization of other nuclear waste and expansion of 
environmental, health and safety requirements, the Energy 
Department said.