DOE Issues Draft RFP For New Idaho NRC-Licensed Facilities Contract

The Department of Energy late last week issued a draft Request for Proposals for the new contract to manage Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed facilities at the Department’s Idaho site and in Colorado. One area in the draft likely to prompt questions from industry officials is DOE’s proposed evaluation criteria, which appears to deviate from the Department’s previously stated plans to make past performance the top criteria when evaluating bids. According to the draft RFP, four criteria will be used to evaluate bids on the new contract—Criterion 1, Relevant Past Performance; Criterion 2, Relevant Experience; Criterion 3, Technical and Management Approach and Understanding; and Criterion 4, Key Personnel and Organizational Structure. The draft RFP states, “The criteria (Criteria 1, 2, 3 and 4) are in descending order of importance. Criterion 1 Criterion 2, and Criterion 3 are equal in importance. Criterion 1, Criterion 2, and Criterion 3 are each slightly more important than Criterion 4.”

The draft RFP came out ahead of a planned pre-solicitation conference, site tour and industry one-on-one sessions set to be held later this week at the Fort Saint Vrain Visitor’s Center in Platteville, Colo. The new contract, which is being set aside for small businesses, would cover the Fort St. Vrain facility; the Three Mile Island-2 (TMI-2) ISFSI facility at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) in Idaho; and the Idaho Spent Fuel Facility (ISFF) license. The new contract is set to be a firm-fixed-price contract that includes a cost reimbursable contract line item (CLIN), and it is expected to run for up to five years, consisting of a four-year base period and a one-year option period.