THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100628
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
Newport News Shipbuilding has submitted a bid to the Energy Department to design and build containers for highly radioactive nuclear waste.
The Newport News yard is the leader of a seven-member consortium seeking the cask project.
The shipyard believes the project initially could generate about $100 million in work. But the total could increase if the Energy Department buys the casks, estimated to cost $275,000 to $350,000 each, from the yard.
Monday was the deadline for submitting bids. More than 100 groups requested copies of the proposal qualifications, according to the Energy Department.
The department said it expects to award the contract in March, although work on building the casks wouldn't begin until September 1997.
The contract will be awarded in three phases.
The first two call for bidders to design two containers, one with a capacity of up to 75 tons and another up to 125 tons, and to build models and prototypes. That part of the job may be awarded to more than one group. Only one bidder would win the final manufacturing contract. The casks are designed to store and transport highly radioactive waste.
The shipyard is seeking new types of work to replace cuts in Navy ship construction and recently won a contract to build up to four double-hulled commercial tankers for a Greek shipping company.
The facility's backlog of work, which stood at $2.9 billion at the end of the third quarter Sept. 30, is at its lowest point in at least 13 years. In April, the shipyard said its work force would drop to between 14,000 and 15,000 by the end of 1996. Now, about 20,000 people work there.
Also competing for the contract is a consortium that includes Virginia Power. Virginia Power initially worked with Newport News Shipbuilding, but in August the utility and the shipyard announced they had broken their ties and would seek the contract separately.
KEYWORDS: NEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING
by CNB