U.S.Department of Energy, Document Control Specialist, P.O. Box 2500, Washington, DC 20013

V -- DRAFT RFP FOR HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE ACCEPTANCE AND TRANSPORTATION SERVICES SOL DE-RP01-97RW00320 DUE 121396 POC Michelle Miskinis, Contracting Officer, (202) 634-4413 or Beth Tomasoni, Contracting Officer, (202)634-4408. The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) will be seeking competitive proposals for commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) acceptance, transportation and delivery services, and provision of storage equipment, in accordance with the final version of this draft Request For Proposal (RFP). In May 1996, OCRWM published, in the Federal Register and Commerce Business Daily, a Request for Expression of Interest and Comments on a previous statement of work for these services. In July 1996, comments were sought from interested parties at a presolicitation conference. DOE is now requesting comments on all aspects of its proposed contracting approach. Under the approach described in the draft RFP, DOE will be purchasing services from a contractor-owned, contractor-operated waste acceptance, transport and delivery operation. The contractor must: finance the project, acquire the transportation and storage system hardware needed to support the specified SNF delivery rates; apply for and receive required permits, licenses and approvals; interact with State, Tribal and local governments regarding institutional activities such as routing and prenotification; and provide any facilities needed to support operation of the system (unless provided otherwise) and deliver the waste to a Federal storage or disposal facility. The contractor will be required to deactivate the facilities and equipment no longer required and dispose of all scrap and waste materials, including any hazardous and low level radioactive waste, generated through the performance of this contract. All costs for disposal of deactivated items, unused materials and waste material will be the responsbility of the contractor. It is the intention of DOE's privatization approach to allocate the financial, regulatory, performance, and operational risks between DOE and the contractor in an equitable manner that both protects the interests of the Government and encourages industry participation. The DOE contract will provide vendor benefits that include, economic price adjustments, payment coverage for idle capacity periods and allowable financing costs in the event of a termination for convenience. Because of the nature of the SNF, the contractor must operate in a strict regulatory environment. DOE's proposed approach is to utilize, to the maximum extent practicable, established and functioning externat regulatory authorities while minimizing DOE involvement. The contractor will comply with all Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Transporttion rules and regulations governing the acquisition and operational phases of the procurement (Phases B and C, respectively). The contractor will be responsible for obtaining in its own name, and shall be solely responsible for compliance with, all necessary permits, authorizations and approvals from Federal, state and local regulatory agencies and tribal nations, and will assume the financial liability for any fines and penalties. The draft calls for a three-phased approach. Phase A, lasting a year, develops the necessary plans for contractor acceptance and transportation of SNF and delivery of storage containers to a designated Federal Facility. Phase B, lasting eight years, develops the capability to implement the plans developed in Phase A including pre-operational start-up in preparation for accepting SNF for transportation and delivery, development and acquisition of required hardware and facilitites, mobilization of resources and provision of intial storage systems and supporting hardware. Phase C, lasting five years, puts the plans into operation to accept and transport SNF. Phase C's start is dependent on DOE establishing SNF receiving capability at a yet to be designated Federal Facility. DOE has structured the initial phase of the contract to be "cost shared". DOE intends to pay no mare than a ceiling fixed-price for work performed in Phase A. No payments are to be expected in Phase B, but the costs of the phase B work would be recovered in the prices for Phase C services. It is anticipated that payment will be made at a fixed unit price per metric ton of SNF delivered. The continental United States has been divided into four service regions for purposes of this procurement. It is expected that multiple contracts will be awarded for each service region for Phase A. An offeror will propose on all four regions. Certain of the Phase A contractors, based on their deliverable products, will be authorized to proceed with Phase B and C work but there can be only one contractor for each service region. A single contractor would not be authorized to proceed with work in more than two regions. The overall project is anticipated to last approximately forty years. DOE will periodically seek competitive proposals from potential offerors on a per region basis over the forty year period. DOE's current plans call for the Phase A contract award to be made in April 1998 based on a July 1997 RFP release date. Phase B would begin approximately seventeen months after award of Phase A. Phase C could begin approximately at the end of the third year of Phase B, (i.e., year 2002) after Congress has designated an interim or final Federal storage facility. Thereafter, Phase C would be repeated in five year increments. OCRWM is interested in receiving comments relating to the draft RFP, especially with regard to the following: 1. Creative approaches for contractors to interact with State, Tribal and local governments and interested parties in addressing key institutional issues such as routing and prenotification. 2. Structuring the procurement to provide sufficient incentive for most offerors to enter the competition for this and follow-on contractos. 3. Financial safeguards for delay in commencement of Phases C as a result of delay in start of operations for an interim storage facility or repository. 4. Any other regulatory requirements, terms or conditions that DOE should consider in formulating this aquisition. DOE will consider and may utilize all information, recommendations and suggestions provided in response to this notice. Respondents should not provide any information that they consider to be privileged or confidential or which the respondent does not want disclosed to the public. Copies of all comments will be placed in the DOE Forrestal Building Public Reading Room. Each submittal should consist of one original and three photocopies. This notice should not be construed (1) as a commitment by the Department to enter into any agreement with any entity submitting an expression of interest or comments in response to this Notice, (2) as a commitment to issue any RFP concerning the subject of this Notice, or (3) as a request for proposals. All written comments are to be submitted to the following address: Michelle Miskinis, Contracting Officer, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW, Attention: HR-561.21, DRAFT RFP DE-RP01-97RW00320, Washington, DC 20585. Comments shall be received by the Department no later than March 31, 1997. The solicitation will be available for downloading on the Internet, approximately fifteen days after issuance of this synopsis, from the OCRWM Home Page located at http://www.rw.doe.gov/, Word search: logistics, railroad, truckers, finance. Prospective offerors that do not have the electronic capability to download the solicitation shall submit a written request to the above address, however, a limited number of hard copies will be available and it is recommended that offerors obtain their copies via the internet. A presolicitation conference will be held in Washington DC in February 1997 to discuss the draft RFP. A separate Notice will be issued identifying the date and exact location. (0354)

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