On Friday the Department of Energy issued a draft request
for proposals seeking an operator for its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New
Mexico.
The resulting cost-plus-award-fee contract will be worth
between $130 million and $160 million per year for five years with an additional
five-year option, according to an agency release. During that time, the
contract winner will run the National Transuranic Waste Program, WIPP’s
day-to-day operations, as well as research and development programs.
WIPP is a federal facility designed to manage non-high-level
radioactive waste in surface storage and a geological repository near Carlsbad,
N. M.
The agency is currently taking public comment on the
draft RFP, and it expects to award the contract in 2012.