Formerly known as the depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) contract, the new operations and site mission support services contract includes work performed at the Paducah Site in southwestern Kentucky, DOE-EM’s Lexington Field Office in northeastern Kentucky, and the Portsmouth Site in southern Ohio. The cost-plus-award-fee contract includes indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity contract line items and a base contract period of five years with two additional option periods—for three years and two years—for a maximum contract length of 10 years. The new contract includes a 120-day transition period.
MCSA will take over the continued management and operations of DOE-EM’s DUF6 conversion project from Mid-America Conversion Services, a joint venture of Atkins, Westinghouse, and Fluor, which has held the DUF6 contract since 2017. The conversion project aims to convert the DOE’s inventory of DUF6 at the former Portsmouth and Paducah gaseous diffusion plants to a more stable uranium oxide form for reuse, storage, or transportation and disposition.
The scope: According to DOE-EM, work to be performed under the new contract will include but not be limited to consolidated uranium material processing; cylinder management and operations; and mission support, including the site emergency management program, utilities operations, fire services, protective force, nuclear material control and accountability, and the criticality accident alarm system at the Portsmouth Site.
In addition, operations work formerly done at the Portsmouth Site under contract by Fluor-BWX Technologies, which previously held the Portsmouth decontamination and decommissioning contract, will be handled by MCSA. This includes utilities, emergency management, physical security, uranium transfers, and nuclear material control and accountability work. According to DOE-EM, this will allow the new Portsmouth D&D contractor, Southern Ohio Cleanup Company (SOCCo), to focus on the end-state remediation of the site. SOCCo was awarded a 10-year contract worth up to $5.87 billion for the Portsmouth D&D contract in July 2023.
Work done under the Paducah deactivation and remediation contract with Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership will also transfer to the MCSA, including utilities, emergency management, physical security, and nuclear material control and accountability.
According to DOE-EM, the transition periods for the new operations and site mission support services and D&D contracts will be aligned to ensure a smooth transition of scope and workforce.
