As the National Nuclear Security Administration reconsiders an award to manage two of its biggest sites, Babcock & Wilcox has levied a second challenge to the bid process that threatened to strip the company of the sizable contract.
B&W's consortium, known as Nuclear Production Partners, filed a new protest with the Government Accountability Office, according to a B&W release Monday. GAO, which hears appeals of federal contract decisions, ruled earlier that NSSA did not properly evaluate the amount of cost savings considered feasible in competing bids before awarding the contract to Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security. In the new protest, B&W said it was concerned about the fairness of a revised request for proposals NNSA issued June 6.
"We are asking the Government Accountability Office to examine the fairness of the revised request for proposals and to ensure the RFP meets all government contracting requirements and fully addresses the GAO's original decision and recommendation outlined on April 29, when our original protest was sustained," B&W Technical Services Group President George Dudich said in the release.
At stake is a contract potentially worth as much as $709 million to take over management of nuclear weapons facilities that include Y-12 and Pantex, sites B&W has managed for 12 years.