Bechtel Gains Ineel Contract Northwest Universities Involved In Research Consortium

The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday said Bechtel B&W Idaho LLC, with its broad nuclear waste cleanup experience, will be the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory’s new manager.

The decision has major implications for both the University of Idaho and Washington State University, which are poised to gain lucrative research contracts from the deal.

In April, the two schools announced they - along with five other Northwest universities - would form a research consortium and sign on as part of the bid for the five-year, $3 billion Energy Department contract.

Bechtel beat out teams led by TRW Inc. and Morrison-Knudsen Co. for the job of managing and operating the sprawling eastern Idaho site from this Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2004.

The Energy Department is requiring its new contractor to assume liability for cleaning up Pit 9 - an area the size of a football field where radioactively contaminated tools, rags, clothes and other trash were buried during the 1950s and ‘60s.

Another bidder, Raytheon, withdrew in March, saying liability concerns about the controversial Pit 9 cleanup prompted its decision.

“It seems to be a very solid team, and in my conversations with them, they’re eager for this opportunity,” Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said. “We were fortunate that we had three solid competitors bidding for the contract. That demonstrates how highly regarded the site is by the national corporations.”

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said late in the day that the Bechtel team offered the government “a strong, focused management structure, an experienced management team and a record of solid performance at other DOE sites.”

In a statement, Richardson said the emphasis at INEEL over the next five years will be on an integrated safety management plan, meeting cleanup and regulatory commitments, advancing environmental objectives, strengthening the scientific aspects of the facility and fostering regional economic development. The new site operator has committed to contracting up to $150 million a year in work to small, minority and disadvantaged businesses, he said.

The seven-member Inland Northwest Research Alliance joined Bechtel B&W Idaho in April to promote laboratory research and management, work force training and educational outreach.

The alliance includes the UI, WSU, Idaho State University, Boise State University, Utah State University, Montana State University and the University of Montana.

University representatives were promised key management positions with the Bechtel team if it won the INEEL contract, and the alliance stands to share in the Department of Energy bonuses awarded to the contracting team.

Officials said the university alliance would help expand the pool of researchers and funding sources from which INEEL could draw while increasing the site’s political clout with the addition of congressional advocates beyond Idaho.

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, was excited at the prospect of working with Bechtel and with Beverly Cook, the newly appointed director of the Energy Department’s Idaho operations office.

“I am encouraged that DOE is putting in place the team that will make our goals for INEEL a reality,” Craig said.

The winning partnership includes Bechtel National Inc. and BWX Technologies Inc., a company that develops nuclear reactor components and five years ago was part of the Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies Co. team that won the last five-year INEEL contract.

Bechtel National is part of the larger Bechtel Group Inc., the San Francisco-based worldwide construction and engineering giant that built the Hoover Dam and the San Francisco Bay Bridge. It also built the Experimental Breeder Reactor I on the former Atomic Energy Commission reservation in 1949.

The company has won a number of major management and cleanup contracts at Energy Department sites in recent years, including joint venture work removing uranium mill tailings and other materials from the agency’s facilities in Missouri, Ohio and other states.

Those jobs included an $800 million contract to manage the environmental cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Eastern Washington and a $6 billion deal to manage work at the Savannah River nuclear weapons plant in South Carolina.

Earlier this year, Bechtel National assumed $4.5 billion in contracts to operate the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, a facility with a location in Idaho Falls that designs nuclear propulsion plants for the Navy and supports their operation.

The other partner, BWX Technologies, previously held a contract to manufacture tank armor at INEEL. It has a long history of designing and manufacturing components for commercial nuclear reactors and the U.S. Navy, and officials said it has supplied fuel elements for the Advanced Test Reactor at INEEL.

Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies has operated the site since October 1994. Last year it chose not to rebid after the Energy Department announced it would not extend the company’s contract and would instead put management of the site’s nearly 6,000 employees up for bid.

Lockheed Martin Advanced Environmental Systems had the original contract to develop a cleanup process for the waste at the Pit 9 site. But it ran into technological problems that led to cost overruns and was eventually fired. Cleveland-based TRW led a partnership that included IT Corp., Virginia Power, ICF Kaiser International and Thermo Electron Corp.

Staff writer Andrea Vogt contributed to this story.