MEETING HANFORD TANK WASTE REMEDIATION SYSTEM (TWRS) PRIVATIZATION Contact U.S. Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office, P.O. Box 550, MS A7-80, Richland, Washington 99352. P. E. Rasmussen, Contracting Officer, 509/376-7437. The Department of Energy (DOE) has established the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) Program to manage and cleanup the high-level radioactive waste currently held in 177 tanks and approximately 2000 sealed capsules located on the Hanford Site. The cleanup is being conducted under the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (Tri-Party Agreement). The remediation system functions include: 1) retrieval of liquid/solid radioactive hazardous waste (240,000 MT of process chemical contaminated with 250 MCi of radioactive elements) from 177 (149 single-shell and 28 double-shell) steel tanks; 2) preprocessing of the waste into two streams - high-level (HLW) and low-activity (LAW) waste; 3) vitrification of the LAW and storage of the LAW in a repository on site; and 4) vitrification of the HLW and transport of HLW in casks to an off-site repository. It is expected that more than 400,000 MT of vitrified LAW and 20,000 to 40,000 MT of vitrified HLW would be produced through the full remediation of the tanks. Historically, the Department has relied on its Management and Operating (M&O) contractors to design, implement, and operate waste treatment systems. The current M&O contractor estimate to design, implement, operate and empty the tanks is about $40 billion. Under the President's Reinventing Government reforms and the related Department's Contract Reform Initiative, a competitive privatization approach in the context of two phases is being evaluated. The first privatization phase (proof of concept phase) would be to build a pilot scale facility(ies) that would process a variety of tank waste over a two-and-a-half to three-year period. Two separate vendors would be given the opportunity to finance, design, permit, build and operate pilot facilities delivering products that would meet the Department's specifications. The total mass of vitrified waste to be produced by both facilities would be about three percent of the total expected to be produced with the full remediation of the tanks. A variety of waste feeds of known character would be provided to allow for a demonstration that the bulk of the LAW to be generated by pretreatment could be effectively vitrified. The Department would provide each vendor a double-shell tank to serve as a receiver tank for the waste that would be supplied by the Department. Each vendor would have to use existing protocols as well as develop new protocols for working in a tank farm and retrieving liquid waste from tanks to feed their plants. High-level waste separated in the pretreatment process would be stored on an interim basis until sufficient quantities are collected to make it cost effective to process. The objective of the Proof-of-Concept phase would be to facilitate learning as many of the parameters as possible considered necessary to afford the second phase the greatest chance of being successful in processing the remaining 97 percent of the waste in the tanks. (While the Proof-of-Concept phase is expected to be less that three years in duration, the Department may decide to encourage continued use of these facilities to process waste for another five to ten years. This would be critical in the creation of double-shell tank space for interim storage of the waste to be retrieved from the single-shell tanks.) The second privatization phase would be to provide the full-scale facilities necessary to process and treat the waste. At this point, about 170 tanks of waste would remain to be retrieved and separated into high-level and low-level fractions and converted to a vitrified product. Two vendors would be selected under a new competitive process to build the processing plants. Because of the uncertainty of the waste characteristics and their variability, the Department would consider processing the remaining tanks on a campaign basis which would be competitively bid on a periodic basis between the selected vendors. This would be considered a prudent approach for both the Department and the vendors since the character of the product and the complexity of the processing would be dependent on the character of the feed. Through this approach, it would be possible to minimize the uncertainty associated with the character of the waste. In the second phase, the vendor would also be required to retrieve the waste from the single-shell tanks and deliver it to the on-site transfer system for movement to the double-shell tanks for blending and holding or directly to the plant for processing. The sequencing of tanks in the retrieval process would be critical in assuring the quantity and quality of both the HLW and LAW produced. Selection and sequencing of the tanks may be negotiated between the contractors and the Department. The Department is considering that the Proof-of-Concept phase would be divided into two parts as follows: 1) design/safety review/permitting and 2) construction, operations and possibly decontamination and decommissioning (D&D). Contractors would be required to bid a fixed price to be paid by the Department in the event of termination by the Department for those activities completed by the contractor prior to construction of the pilot facility(ies). In addition, the contractors would provide a fixed unit price for the treated waste products to be delivered, including the design/safety reviews/permitting, construction, operations and possibly D&D. For the Proof-of-Concept phase, the contractor would secure private financing to design, permit, purchase/construct, operate and possibly D&D the process equipment and facility(ies). The Department would solicit proposals against a detailed Request for Proposal and select two contractors. A predetermined one-time capital payment would be made to each of the two contractors when satisfactory design/permitting is completed and provided to the Department. Beyond this point, the Department would then only pay for the treated waste product delivered in a form that meets contract specifications once facilities begin operations. Contractors would be responsible for meeting the waste product specification and would own/operate plants. The Department is interested in receiving comments from interested vendors on the following topics: 1) In the Proof-of-Concept phase, the Department would provide two selected vendors a predetermined capital payment as an incentive following the completion of the design and permitting of facilities for the pretreatment and low-level vitrification. 2) Recognizing the scope and structure of the Proof-of-Concept phase proposed by the Department, vendors are requested to provide their estimate of the schedule to provide fixed price proposals and schedule thereafter to active operation. 3) Given the wide variation of tank contents, which type or types of waste (both physical and chemical) would the vendor propose to treat in the Proof-of-Concept phase and why? What processing issues are considered the most important to demonstrate during the proof-of-concept phase? 4) What are the vendors views on the extent of the Department's management interfaces with the vendors that would be selected for the Proof-of-Concept? 5) The Department would propose that characterization data from past site analyses and studies be provided to vendors for the Proof-of-Concept phase. The contract specifications would define the upper and lower limits of the characteristics of the waste based upon analytical data which has been determined in the past. Vendors would be responsible for providing confirmatory measurements on the waste data. 6) What would be the general requirements of the vendors for their long-term review flow and return on their invested capital for the Proof-of-Concept Phase? 7) The Department would consider using processes other than vitrification for immobilization of the LAW that would result from processing the tank waste. What waste form materials would the vendor consider proposing? 8) The Department would consider proposing that the nuclear safety framework be constructed using a necessary and sufficient set of standards. These standards would be identified by subject matter experts based upon definition by stakeholders, the vendors, the responsible DOE organization, and resource authorities. Responses to this survey request, should include vendor views and specific responses to the questions set forth herein and should be submitted by June 7, 1995, to the U.S. Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office, Attn: Mr. Peter Rasmussen, Procurement Services Division, A7-80, Room 709, P.O. Box 550, Richland, WA 99352. The Department has also prepared an information package. For those vendors not attending the September 1994 TWRS Privatization Vendor Meeting, please submit a written request for an information package to the address listed above. The Department is interested in having an open and frank exchange with vendors regarding these concepts and their views on Wednesday, May 31, 1995, at the Federal Building Auditorium located at 825 Jadwin Avenue in Richland, Washington, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. If appropriate, discussions may resume at 1:00 pm. The purpose of this meeting will be to provide additional information on this potential business opportunity. You are requested to provide a list of the attendees (three individuals per company) to the address listed above by May 25, 1995. A transcript from this meeting will be available upon request. The Department has not made a final commitment to procure the stated requirements. This request for an expression of interest should not be construed as a commitment or authorization to incur any cost in anticipation of a requirement. This determination will be made subsequently based in part on the response of potential vendors.

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