In a double win for Bechtel covering some $6 billion in work for the government, the Energy Department and the Navy said Friday that they have awarded the operating contracts for the Bettis and Knolls atomic power laboratories to Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corp.
While Bechtel already is the operator of the Bettis lab, it is gaining a new contract at Knolls, which has been run by KAPL Inc., a Lockheed Martin [LMT] unit, since 1993.
The dual contract award to Bechtel is part of a broad effort by DoE to effort to consolidate operations in its nuclear weapons and fuel complex, including reducing the number of contractors to improve efficiency. The department also is hoping that fewer contractors will allow greater integration and cooperation among its nuclear weapons facilities.
In putting the Bettis and Knolls contracts up for bid in February, DoE’s Naval Reactors Laboratory Field Office and the Naval Sea System Command said they would award separate contracts to one entity to run the labs, which both support the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. DoE said it would award a contract for management and operation of the laboratories and the Navy would award a contract for design, development, improvement, maintenance and training for operation of naval nuclear propulsion plants.
DoE and the Navy also required that bidders for the dual contacts establish a separate, wholly-owned subsidiary owned solely by the bidder to run each lab. However, they said management responsibility for the two labs would remain with the general manager positions at Bettis and Knolls, and that corporate involvement in operations was to be limited to corporate fiduciary duties.
Under the five-year contracts, Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corp. will assume operation of the Bettis and Knolls labs on Feb. 1 following a four-month transition period.
Knolls is located in Schenectady, N.Y., and Bettis has locations in Pittsburgh, Idaho Falls and Charleston, S.C., that have been operated by Bechtel Bettis Inc. since 1999.