A team led by CH2M Hill Cos. was selected for the second of the U.S. Energy Dept.’s three major cleanup awards at the Hanford nuclear waste site in Washington state. The Plateau Remediation Contract, worth up to $4.5 billion over 10 years, will involve managing cleanup of spent nuclear fuel and tainted groundwater and decommissioning former plutonium production plants in the site’s central area. On the CH2M Hill team are Fluor Federal Services Inc., AREVA Federal Services LLC and East Tennessee Materials & Energy Corp. The team bested a competing bid from EnergySolutions LLC, URS Corp. and Tetra Tech. The award comes weeks after CH2M Hill lost its bid for DOE’s $7.1-billion contract to clean up leaking underground tank waste. It had been the incumbent contractor. URS and its Washington division, the former Washington Group acquired last year, won the tank contract, with EnergySolutions on its team. Contract transition will start around July 1.