Lockheed Martin has confirmed it is a finalist for Hanford's Mission Support Contract.

The Department of Energy contacted bidders for the Hanford contract this week to let them know if they were among the finalists. DOE determined a competitive range for the contract award earlier this month. The range was used to narrow the bidders to an unspecified number based on their cost and technical approach.

DOE considers details about the competitive range and the identity of bidders for the contract procurement sensitive and has released no more information.

It is seeking a contractor to do work valued at up to $325 million a year for up to 10 years. The contractor would provide services needed to support contractors performing the work of cleaning up contamination from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. The contract work includes security, fire protection, computer services and other information technology, utilities, training at HAMMER and road and railroad services.

The work is part of Fluor's contract which expires this fall.

CSC has teamed with Battelle to also bid on the contract, but declined to say whether it is a finalist. Battelle referred questions to CSC, which stands for Computer Sciences Corp. CSC holds the contract for occupational medicine services at Hanford, and Battelle is well-known in the Mid-Columbia as the operator of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The Lockheed team also includes Jacobs Engineering Group and Wackenhut Corp.

Lockheed, which has 140,000 employees in the United States and internationally, has provided information technology and records and content management at Hanford for 11 years. Its Tri-City employees also do work for the Federal Aviation Administration, the Veterans Administration, the Social Security Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and the Army Corps of Engineers.

It has a strong community presence and is involved in projects such as donating computers for Washington State University Tri-Cities and Columbia Basin College and works with United Way, Leadership Tri-Cities and March of Dimes, among others.

DOE plans to award two additional prime contracts by October to cover the remaining work conducted by Fluor and the work done by CH2M Hill Hanford Group as their contract expires. DOE has not announced the determination of a competitive range for bidders on those contracts.