Department of Energy, Savannah River Operations Office, Contract Management Division, P.O. Box A, Aiken, South Carolina 29802

99 -- SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL TRANSFER AND STORAGE FACILITY SOL DE-RP09-97SR18584. POC Carol R. Elliott, Contracting Officer, (803) 725-2191. The Department of Energy's Savannah River Operations Office (DOE-SR) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, South Carolina, is in the initial phases of executing a program to: 1) receive 18,000 spent nuclear fuel assemblies from foreign research reactors over the next 13 years and approximately 15,000 spent nuclear fuel assemblies from domestic and Government-owned research reactors over the next 35 years; 2) prepare these elements, along with approximately 5,000 elements already in underwater storage at SRS, for final disposal in a national repository; and 3) store these elements until such time as a national repository is available. This program is being executed to implement the Record of Decision for the Final Environmental Impact Statement on a Proposed Nuclear Weapons Nonproliferation Policy Concerning foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel and the Record of Decisions for the DOE Programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel Management Final Environmental Impact Statement. This spent nuclear fuel is aluminum clad with varying uranium enrichments from depleted to highly enriched. DOE-SR is soliciting Expressions of Interest from companies interested in executing all or part of this program under a fixed, unit price contract. The potential contractor would be responsible for determining the strategy to execute the program objectives, including design, construction and operation of all aspects of the program, such as a Transfer and Storage Facility. The contract payment schedule is not anticipated to commence until such time as the potential contractor is ready to accept the material covered by the Scope of Work. DOE-SR intends to award a contract by late 1997 with an expectation that the Transfer and Storage Facility would be operational by the end of 2001. In addition to Expressions of Interest, DOE-SR is also soliciting comments on several key issues which could significantly impact the work to be performed under any ensuing contract and the structure of a Request For Proposal (RFP) covering this proposed work scope. Please provide any comments you may have relative to the following: 1) Would your company be more inclined to respond with an offer if: a) the Scope of Work is all inclusive (receipt, packaging and storage) potentially spanning 25 years or more; OR b) the Scope of Work is discreetly defined, such as preparing and packaging the spent fuel over a 10 year period? 2) Would your company be willing to enter into a fixed unit price contract spanning 10, 20 or 30 years? If not, what form of contract would be preferred over these time periods? Escalation of unit prices over the life of the contract is acceptable as a means of protection for both the Government and the potential contractor. In your view, upon what basis shall escalation be calculated - indexing, re-negotiations, etc.? 3) Is your company willing to take title to the fuel elements during the period of performance under the contract and then transfer title back to DOE upon delivery of the end products? What, if any, impacts are perceived by contractor ownership of the material during the contract period? 4) Do you have a preference that real property be made available at SRS for this project or would you prefer to locate this operation offsite? 5) Would a decision to require compliance with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regulations instead of DOE regulations affect your interest in this project? If so, what differences in NRC versus DOE requirements would affect your interest? 6) Would a proposal within 90 days of receipt of an RFP based on fixed unit prices be practical? If not, please provide an estimate of the time your company would require to respond to an RFP covering this effort. 7) Would restrictions to limit operation to only DOE-owned fuel assemblies impact your decision to participate in this project? 8) Should termination provisions be specified or left open to competitive offers? 9) How can any resulting RFP best be drafted to accommodate potential changes to the spent fuel treatment technology necessary to prepare the fuel for transfer to a national repository? 10) Would you recommend that DOE-SR issue a draft RFP to prospective offerors for the purpose of soliciting constructive comments? 11) Would your company be more (or less) inclined to respond with an offer if the Scope of Work includes receipt and storage (until such time as a national repository is available) of an estimated 5,000 canisters of vitrified high-level waste produced by the DOE-SR Defense Waste Processing Facility? It is anticipated that the names and addresses of respondents to this Request For Expressions of Interest will comprise the source list for any resulting Request For Proposals DOE may prepare. Please be advised that this source list will be provided to interested parties upon request. Please provide your comments to Carol R. Elliott, U.S. Department of Energy, Savannah River Operations Office, CMD, P.O. Box A, Aiken, SC 29802. All comments should be provided within 30 days of the date of publication of this announcement. (292)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0264 19961021\99-0005.SOL)