U.S. Department of Energy, Oakland Operations Office, 1301 Clay St., 700N Oakland, California 94612-5208

A -- STOCKPILE STEWARDSHIP/INERTIAL CONFINEMENT FUSION POC Ann Satsangi, Project manager, (301) 903-8059, Contracting Officer -- W.E. "Bill" O'Neal, (510) 637-1880. WEB: Office of Defense Programs, http://www.pr.doe.gov/solicit.html. E-MAIL: Office of Defense Programs, ann.satsangi@~dp.doe.gov. Sources Sought/Notice of Interest for participation in a new financial assistance program supporting high-energy-density science research projects relevant to the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) component of the Stockpile Stewardship Program. CURRENT ACTION SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is to stimulate interest and actively seek sources for participation in the Inertial Fusion Science in Support of Stockpile Stewardship Financial Assistance Program. The Department of Energy Office of Defense Programs hereby announces its plans to fund competitively selected grants for performance of unclassified innovative research in high-energy-density science relevant to inertial fusion within the stockpile stewardship program. A second announcement will be published about March 1997, to provide notification of the availability of the specific solicitation and to request applications from eligible parties interested in participating in this program. The solicitation and resultant awards under this financial assistance program will be issued by the DOE Oakland Operations Office. THE INERTIAL FUSION SCIENCE IN SUPPORT OF STOCKPILE STEWARDSHIP FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: Science Based Stockpile Stewardship (SBSS) is an approach to meeting the challenges of ensuring the safety, reliability, and performance of the nuclear stockpile in the absence of underground nuclear testing. SBSS stresses increased fundamental understanding of the basic physical phenomena associated with nuclear weapons and the preservation of core intellectual and technical competencies. The DOE Office of Defense Programs has responsibility for the overall Stockpile Stewardship program. The Defense Programs Office of Inertial Fusion and the NIF Project (DP-18) conducts ICF research and other high-energy-density studies in support of Stockpile Stewardship. These ICF research activities are conducted primarily at the three DOE weapons laboratories (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory -- LLNL, Los Alamos National Laboratory -- LANL, and Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque -- SNL), the Naval Research Laboratory -- NRL, and the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics -- UR/LLE. The Inertial Fusion Science in Support of Stockpile Stewardship Financial Assistance Program is sponsored by the Office of Inertial Fusion and the NIF Project. The objectives of this new Inertial Fusion Science in Support of Stockpile Stewardship Financial Assistance Program are to (1) increase U.S. efforts in high-energy-density science relevant to ICF through funding of small research projects at universities and other private sector institutions; (2) promote interactions between such investigators and scientists at the Department of Energy weapons laboratories, and; (3) assist in training scientists in areas relevant to stockpile stewardship. Subject to the availability of appropriated funds, the Office of Inertial Fusion and the NIF Project intends to provide up to $2 million in Fiscal Year 1998 for multiple grant awards under this Inertial Fusion Science in Support of Stockpile Stewardship Financial Assistance Program. DOE anticipates providing continued annual funding for this new program in order to support high-quality, multi-year research projects by private sector investigators in areas relevant to the inertial fusion component of stockpile stewardship (see research areas, below). GRANT AWARDS: Applicants will compete for one- to three-year grant awards through open competition with peer review for both scientific/technical merit and stockpile stewardship relevance. Applications for up to $1 million/year will be accepted with preference for smaller amounts. For those applications which propose the use of DOE ICF laboratory facilities (see below for additional facility information), a further evaluation and determination of acceptability by the host facility will be part of the selection process. Details will be contained in the solicitation document. ELIGIBILITY: The solicitation document (available in March 1997) will invite applications from all segments of the U.S. private sector (non-federal). Any U.S. university or other institution of higher education or other non-profit or for-profit organization, non-federal agency or entity will be eligible for a grant award under this new financial assistance program. Non-US citizens, though ineligible to receive a grant award directly, are not otherwise restricted from participating in research projects funded by this financial assistance program. However, DOE must be notified of any foreign nationals involved in the funded work, and there may be some restrictions on their participation at certain facilities and conferences. RESEARCH AREAS: Under this new financial assistance program, DOE will consider applications for research in high-energy-density science that is relevant to stockpile stewardship and which falls within the areas of research supported by the Office of Inertial Fusion. Both theoretical and experimental proposals are encouraged. All work funded through this program will be strictly unclassified. Examples of the areas of research (and some subfields) eligible for support under this financial assistance program are: Hydrodynamics, fluid instabilities, behavior of complex systems; Radiative properties and atomic physics, dense plasma behavior, plasma spectroscopy, radiative transfer, opacity; Plasma physics, interpenetrating plasmas, plasma streaming in magnetic fields, laser-plasma instabilities, beam-plasma interactions, high-energy-density plasmas; Material properties, equation of state, extreme high temperature and high pressure regimes, material/radiation interactions; Development of Diagnostics, particle (neutron and charged particle), spectroscopic (e.g. x-ray); Computational Physics, radiation-hydrodynamics codes, material-radiation interactions, new modeling techniques. Since one of the goals of this program is to promote interactions between the U.S. private sector and the DOE weapons laboratories, potential applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss possible research areas with individuals at the weapons laboratories. Detailed technical collaboration with any of the five ICF laboratories, foreign institutions, or other private sector institutions is acceptable, although not required. FACILITY USE: For applicants who propose the use of facilities at one of the ICF laboratories, arrangements will need to be made with the specific laboratory. Potential applicants should contact the appropriate laboratory directly to discuss any facility-related concerns and to determine the laboratory's procedures and schedule for submittal of a facility use proposal. The laboratory's review of facility use proposals for acceptability will take place prior to the DOE application evaluation and selection. Points of contact at each facility are listed below as well as on the ICF program home page. Nova (LLNL), Omega (UR/LLE), and Trident (LANL): The Nova, Omega, and Trident facilities will require a proposal submitted directly to the facility in addition to the ICF grant application. For the sakeof simplicity the same proposal may be submitted to the facility and the grant program if desired by the investigator. The information required by each facility will be incorporated into the requirements of the grant applications specified in the solicitation. Due to the scheduling differences (see timeline below) duplicate proposals may not be appropriate in the case of applicants proposing work on Omega. PBFA (SNL), Saturn (SNL), and Nike (NRL): Applicants proposing the use of the PBFA, Saturn, and Nike facilities will not be required to submit a separate facility use proposal. Proposed experiments at the SNL or NRL facilities will be reviewed by these laboratories for acceptability concurrent with the DOE application evaluation and selection process. SOLICITATION DOCUMENT AND PROCESS: A second notice announcing the availability of the solicitation and inviting grant applications under this program will be published early in 1997 in both the Federal Register and the Commerce Business Daily and will also bemade available on the Internet. This notice will further define the program and the research areas of interest and will provide the DOE administrative point of contact for solicitation information and application submission. When the solicitation is released (approx. March 1997), interested parties will be able to obtain copies of the complete solicitation document by downloading it from the Internet by accessing the "Current Business Opportunities at DOE Headquarters Procurement Operations" Home Page (http://www.pr.doe.gov/solicit.html) or via a link from the DOE Office of Inertial Fusion Home Page (http://www2.dp.doe.gov/ifnif/grants.html). Prospective applicants who do not have the electronic capability to download the solicitation from the Internet may submit a written request to the contracting officer for a diskette copy of the solicitation. The requester must include a self-addressed stamped envelope and an MS-DOS formatted high density 3-1/2", virus free diskette suitable for downloading of the electronic solicitation. DOE does not intend to provide paper copies of the solicitation document. Potential applicants will be encouraged to submit a preapplication consisting of two to three pages of narrative describing the research objectives and methods of accomplishment. The purpose of the preapplication is to provide some feedback to applicants on the relevance of their ideas to the program. This is particularly important in a new program such as this where the stewardship aspect may be unfamiliar to some applicants. Preapplications will be reviewed relative to the stewardship goals of the program. The DOE will respond to each preapplication with a letter informing the applicant whether or not the proposed work is within the bounds of the program. Preapplications are not required, but will be strongly encouraged. Preapplications should be submitted to: Office of Inertial Fusion and the NIF, U.S. Department of Energy, 19901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874, Attn.: Ann Satsangi. Responses may also be submitted electronically to: ann.satsangi@~dp.doe. gov. DATES: The second notice, announcing the availability of a specific solicitation, is expected to be issued about March 1997. The anticipated date for submission of preapplications is May 1, 1997 and the anticipated date for submission of proposals is July 1, 1997. Initial grant awards under this new financial assistance program are planned for about November 15, 1997. CONTACTS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Potential applicants and interested parties may obtain additional programmatic information related to the DOE Inertial Fusion and Stockpile Stewardship programs and ICF laboratory facility information from the following sources: DOE Office of Inertial Fusion and the NIF Project (DP-18): DP-18 Home Page at: http://www2.dp.doe.gov/ifnif/grants.html, Ann Satsan~gi, (301) 903-8059, ann.satsangi~@dp.doe.gov, ICF Laboratory Experimental Facilities: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Nova): Robert Kauffman, (510) 422-0419, kauffman2~@llnl.gov, Los Alamos National Laboratory (Trident): Sam Letzring, (505) 667-1957, letzring~@lanl.gov, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque (PBFA; Saturn): Tom Mehlhorn, (505) 845-7266, tamehlh~@sandia.gov, Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester (Omega): John Soures, (716) 275-3868, jsou~@lle.rochester.edu, Naval Research Laboratory (Nike): John Sethian, (202) 767-2705, sethian~@nrl.navy.mil, NOTICE OF SOLICITATION AVAILABILITY: Interested parties may be placed on the email list to be notified of the availability of the solicitation document, by sending email to: ann.satsangi~@dp.doe.gov. Also, please check the ICF program home page periodically for grant program information. (0055)

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