LOS ALAMOS, N.M.— Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B), the legacy waste cleanup contractor at Los Alamos National Laboratory, awarded more than 80% of its nearly $290 million in planned purchases in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 to small businesses, beating its goal of 65%.
“We had significantly more purchasing activity in 2023 with an increase of $134 million in total purchases over the previous year,” said Julie Baer, N3B small business manager. “Ensuring we were able to meet our small business goals with such a large increase in overall purchasing took significant planning and forethought.”
This was the second year in which N3B exceeded all of its subcontracting goals in small business categories. The company awarded 35%, or $102 million, to small, disadvantaged businesses, and 18%, or $51 million, to woman-owned small businesses.
Baer attributed the increased purchasing activity to two staff augmentation subcontracts being awarded to small businesses, one of which was an economically disadvantaged woman-owned small business. Additional purchases included a small business subcontract for access control specialists and one for radiological control technicians with a HUBZone small business. HUBZones are historically underutilized business zones.
“N3B was able to keep pace with the increased procurement activity by being more disciplined in seeking out potential vendors that met the small business requirements to let them know about upcoming procurement opportunities,” Baer said.
For more information about N3B procurement program, please visit our website at https://n3b-la.com/procurement/.
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In early 2023, Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) awarded a five-year subcontract valued at more than $32 million to City State of Knoxville, Tennessee, to provide radiological control technicians to support legacy waste cleanup at Los Alamos National Laboratory. City State is a HUBZone small business, and the subcontract was one of many procurements that led to N3B far exceeding its small business subcontracting goals in 2023. HUBZones are historically underutilized business zones.