SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- Reactor Operating Experience Database(s) for Risk Applications (RxOpEDB)
- Notice Date
- 2/22/2013
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Administration, Division of Contracts, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, 20852-2738, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20852-2738
- Solicitation Number
- RES-13-RxOpEDB
- Archive Date
- 5/31/2013
- Point of Contact
- Jeffrey R. Mitchell, Phone: (301) 492-3639
- E-Mail Address
-
jeffrey.mitchell@nrc.gov
(jeffrey.mitchell@nrc.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a Sources Sought Synopsis. THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AT THIS TIME. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) is conducting a market survey and analysis to determine the range of available contractors that exists and to assess their capabilities to assist the NRC in performing the scope of work described below. This request for capability information does not constitute a request for proposal. The NRC does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this request or to otherwise pay for the information solicited. The purpose of this announcement is to provide potential sources the opportunity to submit information regarding their capabilities to perform work for the NRC free of Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCOI). For information on NRC OCOI regulations, visit NRC Acquisition Regulation (NRCAR) Subpart 2009.5, entitled "Organizational Conflicts of Interest" (http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/contracting/48cfr-ch20.html). All interested parties, including all categories of small businesses (small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, 8(a) firms, women-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and HUBZone small businesses) are invited to submit a response to the market research questions below and submit the capability information as described below. The capabilities package submitted by a vendor should demonstrate the firm's ability, capability, and responsibility to perform the principal components of work listed below. Submission of additional materials such as glossy brochures or videos is discouraged. Responses are due no later than March 25, 2013. The Government will not reimburse respondents for any costs associated with submission of the requested information. Telephone inquiries or responses are not acceptable. Responses should be no longer than 15 pages in length. Responses should be sent via email to Jeffrey R. Mitchell, Contracting Officer, at Jeffrey.Mitchell@nrc.gov. Responses may also be mailed to: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Division of Contracts Attn: Jeffrey R. Mitchell; M/S: TWB-01-B10M 11555 Rockville Pike Rockville, MD 20852 The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 541690. The anticipated period of performance will be 60 months. Background The NRC is responsible for the licensing and regulatory oversight of civilian nuclear power reactors in the United States. The NRC implements regulations and develops and implements policies, programs, and procedures pertaining to all aspects of licensing and inspection of these facilities. The NRC Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) is responsible for contributing to the regulatory mission of the NRC by providing technical advice, technical tools, and information for identifying and resolving safety issues, making regulatory decisions, and promulgating regulations and guidance. RES conducts independent experiments and analyses, develops technical bases for supporting realistic safety decisions by the agency, and prepares the agency for the future by evaluating safety issues involving current and new designs and technologies. RES develops its program with consideration of Commission direction and input from the program offices and other stakeholders. RES supports the development, enhancement, and maintenance of databases - of initiating events, fire events, systems and component reliability, and plant performance - used in agency risk applications such as Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) analysis, Standardized Plant Analysis Risk (SPAR) models and Accident Sequence Precursor (ASP) analysis. RES activities also contribute to identifying the issues that need to be resolved to ensure safe operation for up to 80 years, conducting research to resolve these and potential new issues, and developing guidance to nuclear power plants in programs to manage the aging of systems, structures, and components important to safety. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has been providing technical assistance to the Division of Risk Analysis (DRA) in the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) in the areas of data collection and reliability and risk calculation. These efforts were originally conducted primarily under the "Common-Cause Failure (CCF) Methods and Risk Databases" and "Integrated Data Coding and Analysis (IDCA) Methods" projects. The information captured under both projects came from several sources including Licensee Event Reports (LERs), Monthly Operating Reports (MORs), and the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations' (INPO's) Equipment Performance Information and Exchange (EPIX) system. Similarly, under the sponsorship of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was capturing LER data in the Sequence Coding and Search System (SCSS). To gather the information necessary to complete the studies conducted under each job code required duplication of many tasks, such as reading the same event report multiple times to gather the common and unique information associated with each study. This duplication of effort led to the decision by RES that the technical assistance efforts conducted by INL and ORNL for RES needed to be conducted in a more efficient and integrated manner. In fiscal year (FY) 2001, under the IDCA Methods project, INL began the development of the integrated coding system to capture the information necessary to support the RES uses with minimal duplication of effort. Implementation of this system began in FY 2002 and was completed in FY 2004. Under that project, INL developed a coding manual with guidance for reviewing and coding LERs, a quality assurance (QA) program that ensured data were captured completely and accurately, and an Integrated Data Collection and Coding System (IDCCS) user's guide. In FY 2003, a new project, "Reactor Operating Experience Data for Risk Applications," was established to use the IDCCS and the documentation developed under the IDCA Methods project to capture, code, quality assure, and maintain all the data and associated software necessary to support various NRC activities. This project replaced the similar data collection and coding efforts previously performed at INL under the CCF Methods and IDCA Methods projects and at ORNL in the SCSS. This data collection and coding effort continued throughout FY 2004, FY 2005, and FY 2006. During this time period, various software applications were developed to support this effort. In FY 2007, INL began an effort to restructure the IDCCS for more efficient and consistent coding, to meet the changing directions of data needed for the Industry Trends Program (ITP) Support project, and to eventually provide Web-based access to the IDCCS for NRC staff. In FY 2012, NRC directed INL to expand the existing operating experience database(s) to include inspection reports so that staff may more effectively search through the data in NRC commercial nuclear power plant (reactor) inspection reports. (These reports contain valuable information that can be used to study issues related to operating experience and support other agency efforts related to licensee performance and NRC oversight.) As part of the NRC's continuing effort to consolidate and enhance operational experience data base activities and to better support the needs of the Accident Sequence Precursor (ASP) program by improving the ASP data base, screening for candidate ASP events has been incorporated into this project. This allows for improved program efficiency, facilitates quality control of the operational experience database(s), and contributes to ease of loading relevant items into the database(s). Capability Sought The NRC is seeking to identify commercial organizations capable of providing technical assistance in reviewing LERs, MORs, plant inspection reports, EPIX data, and candidate ASP events and in collecting, coding (classifying), assuring quality of, and maintaining all reactor operating experience data necessary to support the Industry Trends Program, SPAR models and various other risk-associated NRC/RES studies requiring reactor operating experience data. There will be no analysis or evaluation of data. This project requires a mixture of expertise in nuclear plant operations, probabilistic risk assessment, reliability, and statistics - i.e., individuals assigned to this project will need to have a combination of knowledge and experience in both nuclear power systems and PRA applications for nuclear power plants. Additionally, staff assigned to work on this project shall have knowledge and experience in using SQL (Software Query Language) Server for database applications and experience in using SQL Server for developing data files for SAS (Statistical Analysis System) applications - in particular, essentials of SAS programming and SAS Enterprise Guide. Collectively, staff assigned to work on this project shall be knowledgeable and highly skilled in their own (individual) field(s) of expertise; they shall have demonstrated skills in computation and data compilation, programming and coding, probabilistic risk assessment, systems analysis, communication and working with others - more specifically, experience in or knowledge of: nuclear power plant (NPP) system design and operation; NPP response to various transient and accident initiators, including recovery measures which might be pursued to mitigate the impact of the specific initiator; experience with screening and review of operational experience data from LERs, NRC Inspection Reports, and INPO's EPIX component failure records; and NRC regulations and the nuclear industry's reporting criteria," 10 CFR 50.73 "Licensee Event Report system," and NUREG-1022 Rev. 1 " Licensee Event Report System." A minimum of 5 years practical experience in their field of expertise is required, along with a formal education at the university level equivalent to receiving a bachelor=s degree. Mandatory Qualifying Criteria The contractors should be technical experts in their field, with extensive nuclear research experience. Membership in professional associations and active participation at relevant professional meetings such as PSAM (Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management) conferences is desirable. The contractors should have in-depth knowledge and corporate and individual experience and expertise in their technical area(s) in order to identify and resolve issues. In addition to corporate nuclear (regulation) experience, interested contractors should have corporate experience with PRA applications and statistical analysis and programming using SAS. Commercial organizations that are interested in supporting our technical assistance requirements please address the market research questions below and provide capability information on your staff's qualifications and your firm's corporate experiences and qualifications on similar contracts or efforts. Market Research Questions If your organization has the potential capacity to perform these contract services, please provide the following information: 1) Organization name, address, email address, website address and telephone number? 2) How long has your company been in operations? 3) What type of business is your company (i.e., small, 8(a), service-disabled veteran-owned, etc.)? 4) How many people does your company employ, including consultants? Please break down the mix between the two categories. 5) Describe teaming arrangements your company has formed to perform scopes of work outside your core competencies. Describe both the type of work and how you managed it. 6) Which GSA Multiple Award Schedules or Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts, if any, does your organization possess? When do they expire? 7) Does your organization have a Defense Contract Audit Agency (or other cognizant audit authority) approved accounting system? 8) Does your organization have agreed upon indirect rate agreement with any government agency? 9) Has your company previously faced organizational conflict of interest issues with NRC? How were they resolved? 10) List any companies or government agencies your company either plans to or has performed work for related to civilian nuclear reactors. Describe the work performed. 11) Although no geographic restriction is anticipated, if responding organizations are located outside the Washington Metropolitan area, indicate how the organization would coordinate with the NRC program office located in Rockville, MD. 12) Provide a tailored capability statement addressing the particulars of this effort, with appropriate documentation supporting claims of organizational and staff capability. Organizations responding to this market survey should keep in mind that only focused and pertinent information is requested. If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, organizations should address the administrative and management structure of such arrangements. Taking into account the magnitude of the scope of this effort, organizations also should address the capacity of their financial infrastructure to coordinate and deliver contract performance. 13) Describe any other information your company deems relevant to support NRC license renewal activities. Government Evaluation The Government will evaluate market information to ascertain market capacity to: 1) Potentially provide the services consistent in scope and scale with those described in this notice and otherwise anticipated; 2) Potential capacity to secure and apply the full range of corporate financial, human capital, and technical resources required to successfully perform similar requirements; 3) Potential capability to implement a successful project management plan that includes: compliance with tight program schedules; cost containment; meeting and tracking performance; hiring and retention of key personnel; and risk mitigation; and 4) Potential to provide services under a performance based service acquisition contract. DISCLAIMER AND NOTES: This market survey is being conducted through the FedBizOpps to reach the widest possible audience and to gather current market information. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's potential capability and capacity to perform the subject work. The Government may provide access to the information contained in the response to a contractor providing acquisition planning and strategic technical assistance support to the Government. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/NRC/OA/DCPM/RES-13-RxOpEDB/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Contractor Site, United States
- Record
- SN02994596-W 20130224/130222234825-1f080f6a9a4404e39b7ce5f4ec68dc79 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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