Amentum-led team receives $5.87B nuke cleanup contract

A team led by Chantilly-based federal contractor Amentum Services Inc. will manage the decontamination and decommissioning of a Cold War-era nuclear weapons complex under a $5.87 billion, 10-year contract announced by the U.S. Department of Energy Thursday.

Southern Ohio Cleanup Company LLC, based in Aiken, South Carolina, is a joint venture led by Amentum Environment and Energy Inc., and includes Texas-based Fluor Corp. and Cavendish Nuclear Inc, a subsidiary of London-based Babcock International Group. Under the contract, the companies will handle the demolition and disposal of facilities, process equipment, related process buildings and other ancillary facilities at the 3,777-acre Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio. The contract also includes remediation of contaminated soils and groundwater and disposition of uranium material.

The Ohio plant operated from 1954 to 2001 and was initially built to produce enriched uranium to support the nation’s nuclear weapons program and later switched to enriching uranium for commercial nuclear reactors. Weapons-grade uranium enrichment ceased at the site following the Cold War and production facilities were leased to the private sector.

“Amentum and our heritage companies have a long history of supporting the DOE’s environmental management program and have managed numerous decontamination and decommissioning projects across the DOE complex. Our extensive experience at the Oak Ridge Reservation enables us to bring advanced technical solutions to complete the work safely and effectively at Portsmouth,” Amentum CEO John Heller said in a statement Monday, referring to the company’s work at the Tennessee-based Superfund site established during World War II to process material for nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project. “We will partner with our DOE client, regulators and community stakeholders to further advance the Department of Energy’s mission.”

Amentum moved its headquarters from Germantown, Maryland, to Chantilly earlier this year. The company has more than 44,000 employees in 85 countries, including locations across Virginia in Alexandria, Arlington County, Chantilly, Dahlgren, Falls Church, Fredericksburg and Norfolk.