A number of prime cleanup contractors across the EM complex exceeded annual goals for subcontracting with small businesses.
Office of Environmental Management
February 4, 2020
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A number of prime cleanup contractors across the EM complex exceeded annual goals for subcontracting with small businesses in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2019.
Contractors at the Hanford, Savannah River, Oak Ridge, Idaho, Portsmouth, Paducah, and West Valley Demonstration Project sites went beyond their socioeconomic business goals for small business subcontracting. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, set-asides help small businesses compete for and win federal contracts. Contracts can be set aside for small businesses in certification programs and socioeconomic categories such as women and veteran owned businesses, and HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zones) programs.
Hanford Site
Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant contractor Bechtel National, Inc. awarded almost $62.5 million in small business contracts in fiscal 2019, accounting for 43 percent of all Bechtel contracts that year, beating its goal of about 40 percent.
“Bechtel has subcontracting goals it must meet during the life of its contract,” said Kelly Brazil, EM Office of River Protection contracting officer and small business program manager. “Bechtel is required to report their achievements against these subcontracting goals for DOE’s review twice each fiscal year.”
Bechtel surpassed goals for all six small business subcategories, including small disadvantaged businesses, women owned businesses, and veteran owned businesses.
Cleanup contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company’s small business subcontracting tally was $96.4 million, outpacing its goal by more than 7 percent.
At Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), more than $137.5 million went to small businesses. The tank operations contractor topped its goal by more than 8 percent with a total of nearly 67 percent of all WRPS subcontracts. WRPS also exceeded goals for women owned and HUBZone subcategories.
Mission Support Alliance (MSA), which provides much of Hanford’s support services, awarded more than $89 million to small businesses, surpassing its 50-percent goal and finishing the fiscal year with nearly 81 percent of all awards going to small businesses.
Savannah River Site (SRS)
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) beat its subcontracting goals in all small businesses categories. The site management and operations contractor awarded just under $500 million in small business subcontracts, or 75 percent of all awards, eclipsing its goal of 52 percent.
“Supplier development is a critical component and a mission enabler for any company,” DOE-Savannah River Deputy Site Manager Thomas Johnson, Jr. said. “Working with small businesses has certainly proven advantageous for SRS and beneficial to DOE in maximizing use of small businesses.”
A key SRNS small business partner is CTI and Associates, a demolition and destruction, remediation, and environmental services contractor helping reduce the SRS cleanup footprint while preparing the site for new missions.
SRS liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) surpassed its small business subcontracting goal of 58 percent with over 80 percent in small business awards, totaling $102 million. SRR beat goals in multiple small business subcategories, including women owned and HUBZone subcategories.
Local business BK All American Company received a $7 million contract to provide SRR’s Salt Disposal Unit (SDU) 7 excavation work. The SDUs are designed to permanently dispose of the treated decontaminated salt solution removed from the site’s high-level tank waste in the form of saltstone.
Oak Ridge
Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management contractor UCOR awarded more than $168 million in subcontracts in fiscal 2019, with $131 million, or 78 percent, going to small businesses. These awards exceeded the company’s goal of placing 65 percent of all subcontract work with small businesses.
UCOR also surpassed its subcontracting goals with small disadvantaged, HUBZone, and women, veteran, and service-disabled veteran owned businesses.
Small businesses provide UCOR services ranging from automating data processes to manufacturing packaging for waste shipments to repairing large demolition machinery. Each is crucial to helping EM and UCOR stay on track to achieve Vision 2020 — the goal to be the first site in the world to successfully complete cleanup of a former enrichment complex later this year.
“Every partner and every role matters for us to successfully achieve EM’s challenging and complex mission,” EM Senior Advisor Ike White said at a small business event at Oak Ridge in August. “Small businesses have been instrumental in getting us to the finish line with Vision 2020, and EM will continue to depend on their services as we transition and begin major cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.”
Small business Linear Path is a software developer that builds applications for storing and mining data. The company developed automated data processes for UCOR that eliminated the need to print thousands of invoices and spreadsheets, which saved money and reduced the square footage required to store those documents.
Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site
Cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho beat its goal by 12 percent, awarding more than $69 million to local and regional small businesses. Those companies provided products such as food, bottled water, fuel, clothing, and ice melt, and services such as engineering, radiological protection, safety, computer support, photography, and technical writing and editing.
“We are fortunate to have high-caliber small businesses across Idaho that support the needs of Fluor Idaho and the Idaho Cleanup Project,” said Connie Flohr, acting manager, Idaho Cleanup Project.
One of those companies is service-disabled, veteran owned small business HukariAscendent, whose nuclear safety and engineering specialists support EM’s INL Site cleanup.
Portsmouth, Ohio and Paducah, Kentucky sites
The Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office’s prime contractors all exceeded their 50-percent total small business subcontracting goals in fiscal 2019, awarding more than $145 million to smaller firms.
BWXT-Portsmouth, the deactivation and decommissioning contractor at EM’s Portsmouth Site in southern Ohio, awarded approximately $110 million to small businesses, representing 67 percent of its contracting dollars.
EM’s Paducah deactivation and remediation contractor, Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, awarded approximately $22 million to small businesses, more than 53 percent of its total.
Mid-America Conversion Services, the operations and maintenance contractor for EM’s Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) Conversion Project, awarded $13 million, or 64.5 percent.
West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP)
Cleanup contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley’s small business subcontracting total was just over $27 million, outpacing the contractor’s 55-percent small business subcontracting goal by 12 percent.
“Exceeding our small business goals demonstrates WVDP’s commitment to provide opportunities for local companies to assist in our cleanup efforts, while gaining experience working with a federal agency,” EM WVDP Director Bryan Bower said. “It is this experience that can help them grow their business in other federal agencies as well as with state, county, and local governments.”
The site also achieved $809,000 in fiscal 2019 savings by using procurement tools provided by the Supply Chain Management Center, a DOE program that helps EM contractors find better prices for goods and services, and makes the buying process easier, more efficient, and more effective.