Department of the Treasury, DY, U.S. Customs Service, Procurement Division, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 4.2-E, Washington, DC 20229

63 -- RADIATION IDENTIFICATION DEVICES SOL SS-002 DUE 042199 POC L. Clifton 202 927-1139 This Request for Information (RFI) is a market research initiative under FAR Part 10 and will also serve as the synopsis of a proposed contract action as required under FAR Subpart 5.2. NO OTHER COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY ANNOUNCEMENT WILL BE PUBLISHED. The mailing list for the Request for Proposals (RFP) when issued will be comprised of responses to this announcement and a prior announcement dated June 11, 1998. The Government does not intend to pay for any information resulting from this request. The United States Customs Service (USCS) is seeking expressions of interest and capability statements in regard to the following. USCS intends to procure up to 500 COMMERCIAL OFF-THE-SHELF (COTS) radiation identification devices (RID) with little or no modification. The RID shall be a small, electronic device that will DETECT, ANALYZE, AND IDENTIFY various types of SHIELDED AND UNSHIELDED isotopes based on their GAMMA-RAY emissions. Detection of neutrons is desired but not required. This shall be a hand-held device of rugged construction, weather resistant, battery operated and ready for immediate use as required by USCS inspectors. The RID shall be able to display the category and names of isotopes on an LCD display with backlighting or indicate that the analysis was inconclusive (i.e. an unknown isotope). Isotopes shall be displayed within 10 seconds after acquisition is completed. The RID must be able to detect gamma-ray sources in a range of 45keV -- 3.0MeV and determine the current count rate of the isotope detected. The detection of neutrons less than or equal to 2MeV is optional. When radiation is detected, the RID shall alert the user of the presence of radiation. Detected radiation shall be measured to determine the dose rate of radiation and the data displayed on an LCD display indicating the dose rate and the accumulated dose. As a minimum, the dose rate shall be within the range of 0.5uR/hr -- 200mR/hr. Three groups of nuclides shall be detected and identified: (1) special nuclear material (SNM); (2) medical; and (3) industrial. A listing of the required isotopes and categories shall be provided in the RFP. During this function, the RID shall also be capable of identifying multiple isotopes. It then shall automatically process the spectral data collected from the survey mode, analyze the energy against a built-in library of isotopes and then display the results. Beta emitters must not be identified as any other isotope in the requested library. For example, phosphorus 32 (P-32), a beta emitter, must not be identified as Uraniumn 235 (U-235). Customs inspectors will not be required to analyze the spectra to identify the isotope. The RID shall display the analyzed data by category of isotope, name of isotope, and its periodic table element symbol. An energy range of 45keV -- 3.0MeV shall be covered to analyze all nuclides in the library of isotopes in the RFP. Radiation exposure level at 10uR/hr above background shall be detected, which corresponds to that from a one (1) uCi of Cs-137 source at a distance of 18.17 cm from the detector. The RID shall have the capability to identify isotopes listed in the RFP, especially special nuclear material both unshielded and shielded by the equivalent of one (1) centimeter of steel. This high sensitivity is necessary for the purpose of detecting and identifying radiation sources concealed in packages and cargo containers. The acquisition/identification time of the RID shall be less than 60 second to allow inspectors to target contraband radiation sources when there is rapid flow of cargo or passengers. Optimally, the RID shall have a status bar to indicate the stage of processing (i.e. 0-100% complete). There shall be a false alarm detection rate of less than 5%. An isotope shall be "unidentified" rather than misidentified. If the probability of correct identification is less than 90 percent, the isotope shall be considered to be "unidentified." It is required that two or more energy peaks be used for the identification of SNM (U-233, U-235, and U-239) to reduce thepossibility of misidentification. A single isotope must be identified specifically. For example, a single Cs-137 source shall be identified as Cs-137 only. to identify it as Cs-137 AND Ba-133 confuses the user, who must take action. At the time of proposal submission, the contractor will be required to submit one unit to be used by Customs in the pre-award evaluation to demonstrate that the proposed RID devices can perform in accordance with the specification set forth in the RFP. The contract shall be to purchase the units and support for them, including maintenance and logistics, as well as operator instruction handbooks, training videos, and one day of training at each of twenty Customs Management Centers. The RID units shall have a one year warranty covering workmanship and defects. It is anticipated that a firm fixed price contract with a base year and four option years shall be awarded. The Government MAY determine that the requirement is a total small business set-aside based on capability informationreceived in response to this CBD notice. RESPONDENTS ARE ADVISED THAT THEY MUST INDICATE IN THEIR RESPONSES TO THIS NOTICE THEIR STATUS AS SMALL OR LARGE BUSINESSES. Posted 04/05/99 (W-SN316252). (0095)

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