About a dozen companies “are engaged” in the solicitation process for the Energy Department’s new request for proposals (RFP) for its $35 million deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Wednesday at a Senate subcommittee hearing.
The department on Tuesday held a pre-proposal meeting in Las Vegas to discuss the procurement process and the project, which drew more than 30 attendees. An attendees list obtained by RadWaste Monitor showed that representatives from the following organizations were at the meeting: Battelle Memorial Institute, Waste Control Specialists, AECOM, Sandia National Laboratories, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Allegheny Science & Technology, Tetra Tech, Intera, TerranearPMC, Dosecc Exploration Services, the Desert Research Institute, Paul C. Rizzo Associates Inc., Respec, the University of South Carolina, the University of Texas, and the state of Nevada.
The Obama administration is exploring borehole storage — which involves burying spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in crystalline rock formations — as one potential alternative to the canceled geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
DOE issued a new RFP in August after Battelle Memorial Institute, the original prime contractor for the project, failed to secure two separate sites in North Dakota and South Dakota over several months this year. The project drew severe backlash from residents concerned that a successful field test would mean actual nuclear waste storage in their areas, though DOE has said the test will involve surrogate containers and no actual waste. Battelle first walked away from a site in Pierce County, N.D. in March, before it agreed with DOE to cancel the contract altogether in July following another setback in in Spink County, S.D.
The new RFP requires that contractors secure local support before the drilling contract is awarded. DOE anticipates awarding two or more contracts for initial work before narrowing the list to one for the drilling portion of the project. Moniz, who appeared Wednesday before the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, said DOE hopes to select one or more of those applicants in early 2017. Proposals are due Oct. 21.
