SOLICITATION NOTICE
70 -- Risk and Reliability Workstation
- Notice Date
- 8/17/2006
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Administration, Division of Contracts, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD, 20852-2738
- ZIP Code
- 20852-2738
- Solicitation Number
- RFQ03-06-040
- Response Due
- 8/23/2006
- Archive Date
- 9/7/2006
- Description
- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) proposes to enter into a sole source contract to purchase a license agreement to use its Risk and Reliability Workstation (R&RW) program and eight training workshops with Data Systems and Solutions, LLC (DS&S). The period of performance for this project is one year, with two one year option periods. There are a total of 8 option workshop training sessions included in the base and option years; two sessions for the base and three sessions for each option year. This notice is not a request for proposal nor a solicitation for offers. A determination not to compete this proposed procurement based on response to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. The statutory authority permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition is 41 U.S.C. 253( c)( 1 ), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1 (b)( 1) which provides for limiting competition in those situations where the services are available from only one responsible sources and no other type of services will satisfy NRC's requirements. The NRC has issued a policy statement to use PRA technology in all regulatory matters in a manner that complements the NRC's deterministic approach and supports the NRC's traditional defense-in-depth philosophy. The defense-in-depth philosophy is a traditional concept applied in reactor design and operation to provide multiple means to accomplish safety functions and prevent the release of radioactive materials. Within the framework of the NRC PRA policy, the risk-informed regulation will provide improved regulatory decision making and promote more efficient use of agency resources in focusing efforts on safety significant issues, and thus, it reduces industry burden in less safety-significant areas. The NRC also recognized that utilities are using many different risk models for their Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) methods and employ a large spectrum of PRA quantification computer codes, such as RISKMAN, CAFTA, NUPRA, SAFETY MONITOR, EOOS, GRAFTER, REBECA, etc. In order to maintain an independent capability, the NRC also developed its own tool, SAPHIRE, which may or may not be compatible with the licensee's computer codes, even for same risk models. The R&R workstation is compatible with NRC's SAPHIRE. Thus, it is desirable to communicate with utility licensees using computer software packages which are mutually consistent and comprehensible. The R&R workstation is owned by Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and represented by DS&S, and provides a platform to manage and evaluate risk data and to connect the various computer codes in use. The NRC is developing various risk-based methodologies to support risk-informed regulatory applications using various computer codes, and has evaluated the R&R Workstation in parallel with the SAPHIRE and other computer codes. It is beneficial to use R&R Workstation to enhance the communicability with the licensees, since 25 U.S. utilities with 71 units, 10 international organizations, and 6 Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) vendors joined the R&R Workstation user's group and the workstation can be used with or in parallel with other codes and risk models. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is an organization sponsored by the U.S. electric utility industry to perform research to support their operations. EPRI membership includes utility owners of all U.S. nuclear reactors except one. However, the one exception is participating in the EPRI R&R Workstation as an outside member. Products and technology developed by EPRI is made available to all it's members. EPRI is the lead organization performing research for U.S. nuclear utilities, and has developed PSA technology for nuclear power since its inception. The EPRI R&R Workstation is the culmination of this effort. No other organization has in place the ability to support the entire nuclear utility industry in the U.S. with PSA tools. Data Systems and Solutions, LLC (DS&S) is the lead contractor to EPRI for the R&R Workstation, which was developed by EPRI with contractor supports. All EPRI members have free access to the software. DS&S has commercialization rights for R&R Workstation, including distribution to all non-EPRI members, and runs the user group and other support activities. As the developer, DS&S is uniquely qualified to provide NRC the necessary training, as well as software development expertise to create and apply applications. No other organization is authorized to distribute and support R&R Workstation products, and only DS&S can provide the R&R Workstation and its's support to the NRC. The EPRI R&R Workstation is a full scope PSA development and application toolkit. The R&R Workstation is able to support most PSA models developed by U.S. utilities, and can provide NRC with the ability to directly manipulate models provided by utilities. The R&R Workstation is an open system, and DS&S provides documentation and support to allow users to have the ability to enhance existing applications, and create new applications using individual built-in elements of the workstation functions. These are the features other similar products or software package do not have, and the developer may have to create such new features individually and separately. No other software package has this level of interconnectivity, and wide spread usage within the U.S. utility market. It will minimize the work necessary for NRC to acquire and manipulate licensee's risk models in a manner that will, in most cases, eliminate the concern of using different tools from those of the licensee. It will provide NRC with the flexibility to use multiple contractors to develop and support new PSA applications. The R&R Workstation risk monitor product EOOS, is unique when compared to other products available in the industry. EOOS is part of an overall compatible suite of PSA tools. Only EOOS has fully integrated PSA modeling package to support it. When compared to safety monitor, EOOS provides the ability to link directly to a number of high performance quantification engines, and allows the ability to manipulate RISKMAN Models, or cut-set models created by the packages. Furthermore EOOS provides defense in depth calculations that are not available in SAFETY MONITOR. The other Risk Monitor in use today is ORAM/Sentinel, and uses a simplified risk model(ORAM), or a look-up table to access pre-solved results (Sentinel). There is no capability to directly solve or manipulate risk models. EOOS is being used in the vast majority of risk monitor applications. NRC, already has experience using EOOS in some of their ongoing projects. The R&R Workstation is a computer-based PSA application toolkit, which uses input from individual users for specific applications. Therefore, the commercial agreement to use this toolkit does not constitute a conflict of interest, since the toolkit does not include any proprietary information or properties developed or owned by other member utilities, nor disclose any NRC's proprietary information to utilities. The license agreement is proprietary to DS&S and is not available from any other source. As a result of market research conducted, no other software package has this level of interconnectivity, and wide spread usage within the U.S. utility market. There are no similar or same products as the DS&S/EPRI R&R workstation that provides membership for all the major PSA vendors and yet is also compatible with NRC's SAPHIRE and other software packages for wide applications. Other potential product packages require the developer to create new features which are already built in the R&R workstation. The time and the cost to develop the similar capability and software packages with such level of sophistication and interconnectivity will be prohibitive for other potential sources. It will provide NRC with the flexibility to use multiple contractors to develop and support new PSA applications. The EOOS of the R&R Workstation is a part of an overall compatible suite of PSA tools. Only EOOS has fully integrated PSA modeling package to support it. When compared to safety monitor, EOOS provides the ability to link directly to a number of high performance quantification engines (Le., CAFTA, NUPRA, IRRAS, etc.), and allows the ability to manipulate Riskman Models, or cut-set models created by the packages. Furthermore EOOS provides defense-in-depth calculations that are not available in safety monitor. The ORAM/Sentinel uses a simplified risk model(ORAM), or a look-up table to access pre-solved results (Sentinel), and does not have capability to solve or manipulate risk models directly. EOOS is being used in the vast majority of risk monitor applications.Thus, DSS/EPRI, offering already-applicable R&R Workstation, is the only source capable of delivering the product performing the state objectives in the required time frame and cost. All responsible sources can respond by no later than August 23, 2006. This synopsis is not to be considered a request for quotations or proposals. Telephone and e-mail requests will not be honored. No contract will be awarded on the basis of offers received in response to this notice, but offers will be used to determine if a comparable source is available and more advantageous to the Government. See numbered note 22*****
- Place of Performance
- Address: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD
- Zip Code: 20852
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Zip Code: 20852
- Record
- SN01118689-W 20060819/060817222337 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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