The U.S. Dept. of Energy has awarded the $4-billion-plus management contract of its Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, S.C., to a Fluor Corp.-led team instead of the 19-year incumbent, Washington Group International. But WGI remains in charge of the former nuclear-weapons site’s other large contract to run its liquid-waste management and reprocessing operation and is recompeting for a new six-year, $3-billion version of that award.

Irving, Texas-based Fluor says the Jan. 10 DOE award to its team, which includes defense contracting giants Northrop Grumman, Honeywell and Lockheed Martin, “is a significant accomplishment.” The team will also develop strategies to manage the site’s 6,200-person workforce and plan new research-and-development and technological enterprises. The contract has options to extend five more years.

Industry sources say the win was crucial to Fluor’s DOE market leadership, since it completed a contract in 2006 to manage cleanup of DOE’s Fernald site in Ohio. The firm has a cleanup management role at the agency’s Hanford site in Washington state and is competing with CH2M Hill Cos., Denver, for new versions of that contract.

Fluor is also a member of the team led by Parsons Corp., Pasadena, Calif., that is now vying with Boise-based WGI for the liquid-waste management contract. DOE is reviewing the two teams’ proposals and has scheduled oral presentations for early March, says Ken Smith, senior vice president in Fluor’s government group.

WGI’s acquisition last year by URS Corp. did not affect the SRS procurement, says company spokesman Jack Herrmann. He notes that the firm has won nine of 11 major DOE contracts competed since 2001. DOE will debrief WGI and Fluor this month and turn over the SRS contract by April. Both firms also are competing for nuclear management in the U.K.

Source : Engineering News-Record