31310020R0004 Amendment No. 4 Clarification on Answers April 24, 2020.pdf

UNITED STATES

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001

April 24, 2020

SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL NO. 31310020R0004 ENTITLED, "TECHNICAL

ASSISTANCE IN SUPPORT OF NRC NUCLEAR REGULATORY RESEARCH FOR

MATERIALS, WASTE, AND REACTOR PROGRAMS”

OFFERORS:

The purpose of this Amendment No. 4 is to further provide clarifications to the offerors questions and answers provided in Amendment No. 2:

The following revisions were made to the sections of the solicitation referenced below:

1) Refer to Section 5.2, table 3.7 and remove (2018) as shown below.

B.S. in Computer Science or Engineering

Experience in Fortran and C/C++

10 years

Experience in the latest (2018) Fortran code development practice, including Object- Oriented Programming, Parallel programming and MPI

10 years

2) Refer to section M.1.1 General Information for the additions and deletions as stated below:

M.1.1 GENERAL INFORMATION

The Government intends to award a minimum of three (3) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contracts to the successful Offerors. The Government intends to award a contract or contracts resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror(s) whose proposal(s) represents the best value and after evaluation in accordance with the factors in the solicitation in at least two (2) of the Technical Support Service Areas (TSSA) as outlined in the Statement of Work under Section 3.0. In order to receive an award the successful offeror(s) should be rated high in at least two (2) of the Technical Support Service Areas (TSSA) as outlined in the Statement of Work under Section 3.0.

Offerors do not have to meet all capabilities in the TSSA to receive an award. At the time of award the NRC will establish vendor pools for each Technical Support Service Areas.

The resulting contracting awardees will only be able to compete on the TSSA’s for which their proposals were found to represent best value.

Below please find the clarifications questions and responses from offerors in response to solicitation no. 31310020R0004 Amendment No. 2.

Question No. 1: Reference NRC’s response to Question #15 The SOW for Section 3.7 contains 17 technical areas, each requiring personnel with different skill sets. However, the personnel requirements in 5.2 are only specified in the table for one of the 17 areas (17. SNAP-related expertise).

Will personnel qualifications in the other 16 technical areas within Section 3.7 count towards the evaluation of bidder qualifications with respect to Section 3.7?

NRC Response: The first paragraph under 5.2 states that “The staffing plan of the technical personnel must at a minimum possess the education, qualifications and project experience for each technical support service area listed below:” Therefore the evaluation of the offerors qualifications of personnel are listed in the table as the minimum for the pass/fail factor.

The personnel qualifications required for Section 3.7 were revised under Amendment No. 2, Revision No. 4 of which stated the following:

“Refer to Section 5.2, table 3.7 and add the following educational qualifications:”

3.7 Code Development and Code Support

Educational Requirements Required Experience Minimum Number of Years of Experience

Subject Matter Expert in Symbolic Nuclear Analysis Package (SNAP)

Demonstrated code development experience with Java applications

5 years

Demonstrated code development experience with Python applications

3 years

B.S. in Computer Science or Engineering Experience in Fortran and C/C++

10 years

Experience in the latest (2018) Fortran code development practice, including Object- Oriented Programming, Parallel programming and MPI

10 years

Question No. 2: Reference NRC’s response to Questions #9 and #17 Please confirm that the reps and certs are to be included only as a separate attachment to the cost proposal and need not be included with the technical proposal.

NRC Response: This is to confirm that the reps and certs are to be included in the cost proposal.

The reps and certs can either be with the cost proposal or an attachment to the cost proposal.

Question No. 3: Reference NRC’s response to Questions #7 and #18 The instructions indicate that “in order to receive an award the successful offeror(s) should receive a high technical rating in at least two (2) of the TSSAs.” Revised Section M.1.3 now includes reference to an adjectival evaluation methodology, but does not include a list of the adjectives and their definitions.

Please provide a list of adjectives and definitions to be used so offerors can determine the meaning of a “high” technical rating.

NRC Response: The solicitation has been amended to remove the reference to “high” technical rating. See the additions and deletions below.

Section M.1.1 General Information is revised as follows below:

M.1.1 GENERAL INFORMATION

The Government intends to award a minimum of three (3) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contracts to the successful Offerors. The Government intends to award a contract or contracts resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror(s) whose proposal(s) represents the best value and after evaluation in accordance with the factors in the solicitation in at least two (2) of the Technical Support Service Areas (TSSA) as outlined in the Statement of Work under Section 3.0. In order to receive an award the successful offeror(s) should be rated high in at least two (2) of the Technical Support Service Areas (TSSA) as outlined in the Statement of Work under Section 3.0.

Offerors do not have to meet all capabilities in the TSSA to receive an award. At the time of award the NRC will establish vendor pools for each Technical Support Service Areas.

The resulting contracting awardees will only be able to compete on the TSSA’s for which their proposals were found to represent best value.

Question No. 4: Reference NRC’s response to Questions #25 and #30 Page 127 includes a “Level of Effort Table” that lists eight labor categories. Page 128 states, under “Direct Labor Rates”: “The Government has prescribed the labor categories to be used under this contract and provided the definition and minimum qualification requirements for each category elsewhere in the solicitation. (NO DEVIATIONS ARE AUTHORIZED.)”

The RFP does not provide definitions of the labor categories included in the Level of Effort table, as stated in the RFP. We understand that these categories are not used for the technical evaluation, but offerors need to know how to assign and cross-reference personnel from the various technical disciplines to the list of labor classifications in order to prepare a responsive cost proposal.

Please provide definitions of the labor classifications shown in the Level of Effort table on page 127.

NRC Response: Definitions of the labor classifications show in the level of effort table will not be given. The offeror shall use their own classification of what would be equivalent to the labor categories given in the level of effort table for the purposes of establishing a cost proposal.