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Terranear selected DOE’s Protégé of the Year

07.08.2008

RICHLAND, Wash.— The U.S. Department of Energy recognized TerranearPMC as its Protégé of the Year for 2007 at the 9th Annual DOE Small Business Conference in San Antonio, Texas, in late June.

TPMC has a Mentor-Protégé Agreement with Washington Closure Hanford, which manages the River Corridor Closure Project at the DOE's 586-square-mile Hanford Site in southeastern Washington state.

“DOE established the Mentor-Protégé program to encourage subcontracting opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses by pairing them up with DOE prime contractors,” said Sally Sieracki, Small Business Program Manager, Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office.

“The program is designed to promote economic and technological growth, promote and foster long-term business relationships, and increase the number of small disadvantaged businesses that receive DOE, other federal agency and commercial contracts,” she said.

Since 2006, TPMC has performed about $11.6 million in work under subcontract to Washington Closure for the cleanup of radioactively contaminated waste sites and burial grounds at Hanford, including work on the 618-7 Burial Ground and four task orders under the Washington Closure’s Optional Sites Remediation Master Agreement.

“The DOE Mentor-Protégé relationship with Washington Closure is a significant step in the growth of our company,” said TPMC Executive Vice President Ken Fillman. “Washington Closure has provided us access to projects and technical opportunities we could not have addressed alone and allowed us to demonstrate our ability to achieve cost, schedule and process improvements for the task orders we have been awarded,” he said.

“It is through support from large businesses such as Washington Closure, combined with our own drive and vision, that small businesses, such as TPMC, can reach their true potential,” said Fillman.

TPMC is certified by the Small Business Administration as a small, disadvantaged business and participates in the SBA's 8(a) business development program. TPMC has 11 offices throughout the United States. The company provides services in the areas of environmental remediation and compliance, radiological waste management, and engineering design and construction management.

The River Corridor Closure Project includes the decontamination and removal of 486 facilities, closure or remediation of 370 waste sites, cocooning of four reactors, and management of the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility.

In fiscal year 2007, Washington Closure awarded nearly 90 percent of its subcontracted work to small businesses.