WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced that Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), LLC has been selected as the tank operations contractor to store, retrieve and treat Hanford tank waste and close the tank farms at DOE’s Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State.  The contract is a cost-plus award-fee contract valued at approximately $7.1 billion over ten years (a five-year base period with options to extend it for up to five years).

WRPS is a limited liability company comprised of Washington Group International, Inc and EnergySolutions Federal Services, Inc.  The team also includes Areva as a major subcontractor.

“The Department's Hanford Site has played an integral role over the last century in achieving our national security objectives and the Department remains committed to preserving the health and safety of the communities and environment that surround the site,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said.  “Today’s award to Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC will ensure continued safe operations of tank waste retrievals and will position the Department to support future operations at the Waste Treatment Plant."

The Hanford Tank Operations Contract is part of the Department’s Hanford Central Plateau acquisition strategy, which calls for three new cleanup contracts in 2008 at the Site covering mission support, tank farm operations and closure, and waste and facility disposition on the Central Plateau.  The scope of the tank operations contract includes base operations of the tanks, analytical laboratory support, single-shell tank retrieval and closure, Waste Treatment Plant support, and supplemental treatment.  The contractor also will manage the pension and welfare plans for incumbent and legacy tank farms employees.  Hanford’s tank farms contain 53 million gallons of residual radioactive and chemical waste that resulted from more than three decades of plutonium production.  The waste is stored in 177 large aging underground tanks.

The new contractor will begin transition on July 1, 2008.  WRPS will assume responsibility for tank waste mission activities at Hanford under the new contract starting October 1, 2008.  The base period of the contract is from October 2008 through September 2013, with options that could extend performance until September 2018.

The 586-square-mile Hanford Site in Southeastern Washington State played a pivotal role in the nation’s defense for more than 40 years, beginning in the 1940s with the Manhattan Project.  Formerly a plutonium production complex with nine nuclear reactors and associated processing facilities, Hanford is today engaged in the world’s largest environmental cleanup program.  For additional information on the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and the Hanford site.

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Joann Wardrip, (202) 586-4940
Carrie Meyer, (509) 376-2048