MOX FUELS IMPLEMENTATION PLAN Consistent with the Record of Decision for the Storage and Disposition of Weapons-Usable Fissile Materials Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, dated January 14, 1997, the Chicago Operations Office of the Department of Energy (DOE) intends to issue on or about April 25, 1997, an Implementation Plan for the acquisition of mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication services and reactor irradiation services. The purpose of these services will be to effect the disposition of surplus plutonium by transforming plutonium dioxide powder to the spent fuel standard, where the plutonium is as unattractive and inaccessible for retrieval and weapons use as the residual plutonium in the spent fuel from commercial reactors. Fuel fabrication services include all the activities which are necessary to develop a domestic MOX fuel fabrication facility under license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The scope of fuel fabrication services includes designing, construction, licensing, and operation of a MOX fuel fabrication facility, and, ultimately, decontamination and decommissioning of the facility. Reactor irradiation services include all the activities which are necessary to permit the irradiation of mixed oxide fuel elements in commercial light water reactors under license from the NRC. These activities include performing all the design and engineering services necessary to modify reactors and facilities to use MOX fuel, identifying necessary fuel qualification activities, obtaining NRC license modifications, preparing necessary environmental documentation, irradiating the fuel, controlling fresh fuel under proper security measures, and storing irradiated fuel pending disposal. The purpose of the Implementation Plan is to describe the DOE's intended approach for acquiring these services and to request comments on this approach from prospective offerors. An Implementation Plan Workshop will be held in the Spring of 1997 to discuss these comments and related issues to be considered in the issuance of a request for proposals shortly thereafter. The DOE prefers a consortium approach to obtain the desired services, i.e., single organization would be responsible for providing all desired services, including technical and managerial integration of these services. Consortia must be led by a U.S.-owned company involved in one of the principal consortium activities. A phased process will be used to select a consortium obtain the desired services. The MOX fuel fabrication facility will be designed, licensed, and operated by the consortium on an existing DOE site to be selected through a separate site selection process by DOE. The facility will be Government-owned and either newly constructed or the modification of an existing facility. The MOX fuel fabrication plant will be operated solely for the disposition of U.S. Government surplus plutonium and the Government will be responsible for all transportation of plutonium materials. The Implementation Plan and other related documents will be posted on the DOE Chicago INTERNET Home Page at http://www.ch.doe.gov/division/acq/acq_home.htm. No other notice will appear prior to the issuance of the Implementation Plan. To access and download the document electronically, use one of the following methods: (1) users with INTERNET access can use WEB browsers such as NETSCAPE and MOSAIC to access the DOE Chicago Operations Office Home Page at http://www.ch.doe.gov; or (2) users with dial-up hosts connection to the INTERNET (such as America On Line, CompuServe, or Prodigy) can access the DOE Chicago Operations Office Home Page by using their INTERNET access software. In addition, copies of the document will also be available on a floppy disk. To obtain a floppy disk of the Implementation Plan after its release, please contact Tim Barr at (630) 252-9224, submit a request by e-mail at tim.barr@ch.doe.gov, or facsimile at (630) 252-2654 WEB: Acquistion Page, http://www.ch.doe.gov/division/acq/acq_home.htm. E-MAIL: Technical Point of Contact, tim.barr@ch.doe.gov.

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