Lockheed Martin Team Works On $3B Hanford Cleanup

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — A team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. will manage and operate a $3.06 billion contract from the U.S. Department of Energy to clean up sections of the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, officials said Thursday.

The deal at Hanford, a massive site in south central Washington, also includes representatives from Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., and Wackenhut Services, Inc. along with other smaller teammates. The group operates under the name Mission Support Alliance LLC.

The group was first awarded the five-year contract, which has the option of being extended for another five years, in Sept. 2008. But it was delayed after a competitor lodged a complaint.

"We are gratified that the U.S. government has made its determination, and we are ready to begin," Tom Grumbly, Vice President of Lockheed Martin's energy and security services, said in a statement.

Lockheed Martin is the nation's largest defense contractor.

The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. Today, it is the nation's most contaminated site, with cleanup expected to last decades.

The 586-square-mile site's central plateau once housed five chemical separation buildings and other facilities that separated and recovered plutonium for use in nuclear weapons.