SPECIAL NOTICE
B -- Technical Assistance in the Resolution of Public Comments Resulting from a Revision to the Division of Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation (SFST) Standard Review Plans (SRPs) for the Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel
- Notice Date
- 4/27/2009
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Administration, Division of Contracts, 12300 Twinbrook Parkway, Rockville, Maryland, 20852-2738, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20852-2738
- Solicitation Number
- NMS-09-010
- Archive Date
- 5/27/2009
- Point of Contact
- Manon L. Butt,, Phone: 301-492-3629
- E-Mail Address
-
manon.butt@nrc.gov
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) proposes to enter into a sole source contract entitled “Technical Assistance in the Resolution of Public Comments Resulting from a Revision to the Division of Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation (SFST) Standard Review Plans (SRPs) for the Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel” with Information Systems Laboratories (ISL), Inc. The work would include categorizing and answering public comments as well as making any associated changes to the storage SRPs prior to final publication. The period of performance for this project is approximately 23 months. The 23 month estimated schedule coincides with the time period for receiving the public comments to publishing the final version of the subject SRPs. The proposed contract is a follow-on effort to contract NRC-02-06-006 entitled “Technical Assistance in Risk-Informing Spent Fuel Project Office Standard Review Plans for Storage and Incorporating Interim Staff Guidance (ISG) Documents.” Under the current contract, ISL is responsible for updating NUREG-1536 and NUREG-1567 by incorporating information from ISG documents and including any applicable emergent technical issues. ISL is also responsible for developing a risk informing process and applying it to the SRP’s review procedures. The revised SRPs contain a first-of-a-kind, potentially controversial risk-informing methodology for dry cask storage that has never been issued or used by either the NRC or the nuclear industry. Based on staff experience with resolving public comments on controversial documents such as these, the staff expects a significant number of highly technical comments on the methodology that will challenge NRC risk-informing policies, risk analyses, and regulatory auditing strategies. Resolution of public comments on the SFST storage SRPs will require specific knowledge of applied risk informing methodologies evaluated, developed and utilized by ISL in risk informing these storage SRPs. As both the developer of the methodology and lead author of its description in the SRP, ISL is intimately familiar with the methodology and its application. During the performance of the current contract, ISL developed three risk-informing methodologies for utilization in meeting the contract’s objective of identifying SRP areas that were of higher or lower relative significance. ISL evaluated these methodologies by applying them to a few sample SRP chapters, by interviewing NRC technical staff, and determining which method was best suited for the application. Once a method was selected, it was applied to all the applicable portions of the SRP chapters to determine the relative risk significance of the review procedures. There is a high likelihood that public and industry comments will focus on this first of a kind risk informing of the SRPs, resulting in a significant number of comments regarding this risk methodology. The standard review plan is approximately 322 pages in length with 14 distinct technical areas. Based on staff experience, public comments on large documents like these address multiple technical areas with both specific technical comments and those that are more general in nature that may apply to many areas. Technical resolution of these comments will require the judgment and expertise of NRC staff. However, an important initial effort in the resolution of public comments is the review of each comment and then placing them into related technical or policy categories (i.e. binning). Based on ISL staff experience with binning comments from external stakeholders, many comments may be duplicative of other comments, and/or consist of several sub-comments that need to be broken down into individual categories. This binning process will require an intimate knowledge of the SRP’s format and content, otherwise extra effort and cost would be needlessly expended familiarizing a new contractor with the large documents. As the technical editor of the storage SRPs, ISL has the required prerequisite knowledge of the SRP format and general content within the 14 distinct technical areas to assist the NRC staff in this binning process. Over the past two years, ISL has interviewed several NRC staff in most of the distinct technical areas to better understand its contents as part of the risk-informing process. A different contractor would have to spend considerable time familiarizing themselves with the format and content of the several documents. ISL has extensive experience associated with the risk informing of regulatory guidance documents and inspection procedures. It is highly unlikely that another contractor could perform the requirements as cost effectively as ISL since no other contractor is familiar with the SFST storage SRPs, the risk informing process developed by ISL, or the ISGs that have been incorporated into the SRPs. Another contactor would have to expend considerable time and effort to acquire ISL’s current understanding of the storage SRPs and the risk informing methodology developed by ISL. Another contractor would also not have the in-depth knowledge of the bases behind the risk informing methodology in order to properly defend it in the public arena. The statutory authority for negotiating on a sole-source basis with ISL is made under the authority of 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 source and no other services will satisfy NRC’s requirements. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 541990. This notice of intent is neither a request for proposal nor a solicitation of 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. Any response to this notice must show clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government. In doing so, interested sources must submit technical capabilities and any other information that demonstrates their ability to meet the NRC’s needs. Detailed capabilities must be submitted to Manon Butt, Contract Specialist, via email to manon.butt@nrc.gov no later than May 12, 2009. Telephonic responses and responses providing insufficient information for evaluation by the NRC will not be considered.
- Web Link
-
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(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=67d382fe77ef703dcc3e8f586be5ccf6&tab=core&_cview=1)
- Place of Performance
- Address: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, 20852, United States
- Zip Code: 20852
- Zip Code: 20852
- Record
- SN01802321-W 20090429/090427215246-67d382fe77ef703dcc3e8f586be5ccf6 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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