A new consortium of two Virginia companies has been awarded a contract worth up to $1.4 billion to monitor contaminated water systems, clean up soiled lands and ship radioactive waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The U.S. Energy Department awarded the contract this week to Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos LLC.
It was formed by BWXT and Stoller Newport News Nuclear.
BWXT is part of Los Alamos National Security LLC, a consortium that has been managing Los Alamos National Laboratory since 2006.
The Department of Energy is in the process of selecting a new manager for the lab.
In a news release, the Department of Energy said the new consortium will focus on cleaning up contaminated waste sites; decontaminating and demolishing contaminated buildings; and packaging and shipping mixed, low-level and transuranic radioactive waste to disposal facilities.
Monitoring and protecting the Los Alamos regional aquifer also will be an objective of the new consortium.
Steven Horak, a spokesman for the Department of Energy’s environmental management field office at Los Alamos, said in an email: “DOE will work closely with both the incumbent cleanup contractor Los Alamos National Security and the new legacy cleanup contractor to ensure a safe, smooth transition of this important work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.” The department said the new consortium was selected from three proposals.
Stoller Newport News Nuclear is a subsidiary of Huntington Ingalls Industries and is known as being the nation’s largest military shipbuilding company.
In part because of that accident, the Department of Energy said it would not renew Los Alamos National Security’s contract to manage the lab.