Attachment 1 - SLAC JOFOC-Contract Extension FY23-27 sept 9 2021 - signed by SC-SBinkley 9.23.21 JRB Signed 09292021.pdf

Acquisition Plan, Attachment 1

Source Selection Information - Procurement Sensitive (see FAR 2.101 and 3.104)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER

THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (JOFOC) IN

ACCORDANCE WITH 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(3) and FAR Section 6.302-3(a)(2)(ii)

1. Identification of the Agency and the Contracting Activity.

Agency: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE or Department) Contracting Activity: Office of Science (SC)

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

The action to be approved is the award of a five (5) year contract extension from October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2027 for Management and Operating (M&O) contract DE- AC02-76SF00515 between DOE and The Board of Trustees of The Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford) for the management and operation of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC or Laboratory). An M&O contract is an agreement under which the Department contracts for the operation, maintenance, or support, on its behalf, of a Government-owned or controlled research, development, special production, or testing establishment wholly or principally devoted to one or more major programs of the DOE. The current contract ends on September 30, 2022.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs

(including the estimated value).

The Department requires a contractor to manage and operate the SLAC Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC). SLAC is a multi-program national laboratory managed and operated by Stanford for the DOE. SLAC was founded in 1962 and has gained international recognition for research and operation of major user facilities in photon and synchrotron radiation science as well as particle physics and particle astrophysics. The SLAC M&O contract is a performance-based contract with an estimated value of approximately $500 million (M) per year. Operated by Stanford, SLAC supports the SC research objectives through its primary mission focus to explore the ultimate structure and dynamics of matter and the properties of energy, space, and time, through robust scientific programs, accelerator-based user facilities, and valuable partnerships.

In support of DOE’s mission, SLAC provides extensive capabilities in world-class research expertise and unique facilities that do not exist elsewhere and are generally beyond the capability of any nongovernmental institution to construct or operate. SLAC has six core capabilities: 1) large-scale user facilities and advanced instrumentation, 2) condensed matter physics and materials science, 3) chemical and molecular science, 4) accelerator science and technology, 5) plasma and fusion energy science, and 6) particle physics. SLAC is also developing core capability in advanced computer science, visualization, and data. Photon science is the most rapidly expanding element in the changing balance of scientific foci at SLAC, with SC's Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program as the dominant sponsor of work at the Laboratory. These established and developing core capabilities provide technical support and deliver results to advance the Department’s strategic theme of scientific discovery and innovation.

As an SC national laboratory, SLAC is strategically aligned with the goals of the DOE. To ensure the Laboratory’s long-term health and vitality as a steward of SC’s world-leading science and technology, SLAC’s mission is to bring the power of science and technology to bear on questions that are of utmost significance to the U.S. taxpayer and the DOE. To achieve these objectives, SLAC works in cross-disciplinary teams in collaboration with universities, private entities, and other national and industrial laboratories and participates in training the next generation of scientists. Major scientific initiatives at SLAC are:

• Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)

• Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL)

• Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests (FACET)

• Cryo-Electron Microscopy

• Advanced Instrumentation

Data Management Systems Sensors and Detectors

• Particle Physics and Astrophysics (PPA) Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) Accelerator Research and Development

During the next 5-year contract period, the SLAC mission is projected to be complex, requiring a diligent effort by the Contractor to meet the challenging objectives that are outlined in the Department’s Strategic Plan. The SLAC contribution to the Strategic Plan is fully consistent with SC’s goals and objectives. SLAC will play an integral part in several national efforts, including:

• LCLS-II

The LCLS-II construction project is approximately 90 percent complete as of December 2020. First light is planned for Q4 of FY 2022. To ensure early scientific success of LCLS-II, SLAC is driving an appropriate time-phasing of advanced instruments in high-impact science areas, based on extensive science community input. The first two instruments will exploit the new tunable undulators with the existing accelerator from mid-FY 2021, up to one year ahead of the new beam. This will allow robust commissioning and early exploitation of the new undulators and ensure readiness for high repetition rates in FY 2021. In parallel, SLAC is organizing teams from the science community for “early science” access to deliver experimental results in priority areas.

• LCLS-II-HE

The extension of LCLS-II from its maximum photon energy of 5 keV is motivated by the scientific need for atomic resolution at high average power. LCLS-II-HE will reach at least 13 keV, and potentially up to 20 keV, enabling the study of structural dynamics at the atomic scale, with the penetrating power and pulse structure needed for in situ and operando studies of real-world materials and functioning assemblies such as photocatalysts. The unprecedented capability of capturing 108-1010 scattering snapshots per day will allow us to leverage revolutionary advances in data science to extract new insight from massive datasets. SLAC continues to refine the new science enabled by LCLS-II-HE through workshops (e.g., Scientific Opportunities for Ultrafast Hard X-rays at High Repetition Rate, in September 2016) followed by a series of “first experiments” workshops on AMO and chemistry (July 2017); and materials physics and quantum materials (Oct. 2017). These efforts are ongoing, with the most recent meeting in Oct.

2018 (LCLS-II-HE Advanced Methods & Instrumentation Workshop).

• SuperCDMS

The SuperCDMS (Cryogenic Dark Matter Search) will allow direct searches for relic dark matter candidates at unprecedented levels of sensitivity at low Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) masses, while the complementary LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) liquid xenon experiment, being constructed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will achieve the world’s best WIMP sensitivity at higher masses. Both have been selected as next-generation direct dark matter search experiments, with SLAC playing a critical lead role in the SuperCDMS Sudbury Neutrino Observatory LAB (SNOLAB) project. SLAC has optimized the design and production of large germanium sensors for SuperCDMS and is establishing cryogenic test facilities and Time Projection Chamber system test capabilities for noble liquid systems for LZ.

• Particle Physics, Particle Astrophysics, and Neutrino Physics

Particle Physics, Particle Astrophysics, and Neutrino Physics, accelerator-based particle science, was the founding mission at SLAC. The development of particle astrophysics and neutrino physics based on the capabilities of the Large-aperture Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and the Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO), will provide the foundation for future investment and innovation, and support the central mission to explore and discover the laws of nature as they apply to the basic constituents of matter and the forces between them. Additionally, data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, or FERMI (formerly Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope or GLAST), a space-based detector that is studying the gamma ray sky, has already produced significant scientific results.

• Cryo-Electron Microscopy (Cryo-EM)

SLAC and Stanford deployed in FY 2018 a suite of four cryo-EM instruments. In addition, the award in FY 2018 of a national cryo-EM user facility funded by NIH at approximately $42 million over 6 years, will bring significant instruments, resources, and new capabilities to SLAC. New cryo-FIB-SEM instrumentation funded by Biological and Environmental Research (DOE-BER) and complementary development and expansion of the X-ray micro-focus macromolecular crystallography and imaging capabilities at SSRL and LCLS are targeting a multi-modal approach over a range of spatio-temporal scales for investigating structure and function of biological materials.

4. Identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

Title 41 U.S.C. Section 3304(a)(3)(B) allows agencies to use non-competitive procedures when it is necessary for the agency "to establish or maintain an essential engineering, research, or development capability to be provided by an educational or other nonprofit institution or a Federally funded research and development center. Regulatory implementing authority is promulgated at 48 C.F.R. 6.302-3 (a)(2)(ii).

5. Demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

To manage the SLAC FFRDC, DOE requires a contractor that possesses exceptional and extensive capabilities in the management and operation of both world-class scientific research and facilities. Through Stanford’s recruitment and retention of its key leadership team and key scientists, industry knowledge, business relationships, and its corporate history of designing, constructing and operating SLAC, Stanford possesses the necessary resources to provide the required capabilities to support DOE’s mission objectives. There is a continuing need to retain the key management and leadership capabilities that have previously been demonstrated by Stanford.

SLAC supports the Department’s strategic goals to reach scientific discovery and innovation by means of the following:

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is the world’s first hard x-ray free electron laser. LCLS enables frontier science in areas that include discovering and probing new states of matter, understanding, and following chemical reactions and biological processes in real time, imaging chemical and structural properties of materials on the nanoscale, and imaging non-crystalline biological materials at atomic resolution one molecule at a time.

LCLS-II received CD-2/3 approval in March 2016 with a Total Project Cost of $1,045M and CD-4, Project Completion, scheduled for Q4 FY 2022. The project involves (i) two independent soft X-ray beams from 2 undulators covering 200 eV - 2000 eV, (ii) hard X-ray beams covering 1 keV – 20 keV, (iii) independent or in-sync operation of undulators, and

(iv) a five-fold increase in user access by running parallel rather than serial X-ray beam experimental stations.

The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) provides synchrotron radiation, a name given to x-rays or light produced by electrons circulating in a storage ring at nearly the speed of light. Stanford Positron Electron Accelerator Ring-3 (SPEAR3), SLAC’s new third generation synchrotron light source complements existing beam lines and enables the expansion of beam capacity at SSRL. This major investment in SPEAR3 optimizes synergy with LCLS in technical and scientific areas. SSRL competitiveness and delivery of new capabilities in support of BES mission-related science can be optimally achieved through a phased investment of about $35M for accelerator related and SPEAR3 infrastructure upgrades and $46M for new beam line and detector/end station capabilities.

The technical core team to implement LCLS-II and the SSRL upgrades are in place but increased technical strength is required in specific areas. In X-ray optics, SLAC will require greater joint LCLS/SSRL in-house expertise. In the detectors, resources of LCLS, SSRL and Particle Physics and Astrophysics need to be combined and significantly strengthened and coordinated with other DOE labs. In undulator construction, SLAC will continue to rely on partnerships with other National Laboratories such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which will build the undulators for LCLS-II. SLAC envisions the formation of a scientific computing group for start-to-finish simulations of LCLS experiments and the development of data analysis tools for users.

Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests (FACET) is exploring how to harness plasmas and specialized materials to boost particles quickly to gigaelectronvolt (GeV) energies over an approximately 1-meter distance. This is accomplished with the aid of powerful electron and positron beams from a section of SLAC's 2-mile-long linear accelerator, which opened to scientists in 2012.

• Recently, plasma acceleration of positrons was proven, a key step to future collider development. The goal is to shrink particle accelerators for use in high-energy physics research as well as for other applications across DOE-SC.

• Scientists are also using FACET to study magnetic properties in materials with applications in data storage, high-energy sources of terahertz radiation with applications in materials science and chemical imaging, and diagnostics for future accelerators.

• In FY 2020, FACET, combined with SLAC’s other test facilities—the Next Linear

Collider Test Accelerator (NLCTA), the Accelerator Structure Test Area (ASTA) and the End Station Test Beam (ESTB)—supported 15 experiments for 144 users from SLAC, Stanford and other institutions.

6. A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by FAR Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under FAR Section 5.202 applies.

Offers from other sources will not be solicited. FAR Section 5.202(a)(10) provides that the Contracting Office need not submit the notice required by FAR Section 5.201 when the Contracting Officer determines that the action is made under conditions described in FAR Section 6.302-3.

7. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

Based on the following facts, the Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated costs to the Government will be fair and reasonable. This action’s anticipated dollar value is approximately $500M annually or $2.5 billion for the entire extension period. An M&O contract establishes a close working relationship with DOE and the M&O contractor. The

Department, in association with the M&O contractor, establishes an annual operating and capital expenditure budget for performance at a prescribed level of activity to fulfill its mission requirements. The Office of Science Program Offices (e.g., Basic Energy Sciences, High Energy Physics, Biological and Environmental Research) work with SLAC to pair Program Office mission objectives with the appropriate costs. The Program Offices have experienced personnel who are knowledgeable of SLAC’s unique scientific capabilities and have the skill to set mission objectives that are within the limits of the SLAC annual budget thus assuring that the cost to the government will be fair and reasonable. The Department’s budget process and the performance-based contract provide adequate controls to ensure that expenditures (costs) to support the required levels of authorized activity are fair and reasonable and that contractor performance remains at an acceptable level.

The contractor’s financial management system is an integrated accounting system that is linked to DOE’s accounts using reciprocal accounts. The contractor is required to provide a satisfactory annual internal audit and examination of the records, operations, expenses, and transactions with respect to costs claimed to be allowable under this contract. The contractor also prepares and submits to DOE annually, a Cost Statement for the total of net expenditures accrued which is certified and is subject to penalty provisions for unallowable costs. The DOE, after audit and appropriate adjustment, approves the Cost Statements. The DOE’s approval constitutes an acknowledgement by DOE that the net costs incurred are allowable under the contract and that they have been duly recorded. DOE’s approval does not relieve the contractor of responsibility for DOE’s assets in its care, for appropriate subsequent adjustments, or for errors that are later discovered.

The maximum fee which can be earned under the extended contract will be calculated in accordance with the Department of Energy Acquisition Regulations (DEAR) and DOE policy which ensure fees are reasonable. The fee is an “at risk” performance-based fee.

8. A description of the market research conducted and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

Formal market research has not been conducted for the planned five-year extension of the current contract. For the reasons discussed herein, and consistent with statute and regulation, a contract extension under other than full and open competition is recommended.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition.

As set forth in FAR 17.605, replacement of an M&O contractor is usually based largely upon an expectation of meaningful improvement in performance or cost. Over the last five evaluation periods, Stanford has been one of the best performing M&O contractors in SC and has consistently received positive performance evaluations from DOE. Considering Stanford’s exemplary performance, DOE does not expect that competing the contract will result in any meaningful improvement in contract performance or cost management.

If Stanford were not retained as the M&O contractor for the SLAC contract, costs would likely increase because: 1) under the SLAC lease, if Stanford is not the controlling entity of the M&O contract or its equivalent, the Government's annual cost to operate SLAC may increase by approximately $50 million (the estimated rental charge), 2) services provided by Stanford to SLAC are at cost (e.g., internal audit, payroll administration, occupational medicine) and Stanford does not earn a commission or profit margin on services provided to SLAC, 3) Stanford, with the assistance of private donations, has contributed buildings and scientific equipment to SLAC (e.g., a photon science laboratory building, a new SSRL scientific hutch, and an athletic facility for SLAC employees), 4) personnel who are jointly assigned to Stanford and SLAC would likely leave SLAC to work for Stanford fulltime thus leaving SLAC with a talent void to fill and the associated recruiting costs, and 5) SLAC pays the majority of its own litigation costs for which it does not seek reimbursement under the Contract.

A change in contractor at this time would likely have a significant, detrimental impact on SLAC’s ability to deliver programmatic needs, including: 1) the inability of the new contractor to retain the strong leadership team, 2) disruptions to joint Stanford-SLAC Institutes which are furthering SLAC’s ability to deliver the DOE mission, 3) the loss of joint appointments, including tenured faculty who are expected to remain with Stanford following a change in contractor, and 4) disruptions to graduate student programs. Furthermore, the LCLS-II project is currently underway. A competition has the potential to disrupt the contractor’s ability to successfully execute this critical project over the next contract period.

In accordance with DEAR 970.1706-1, any extension to continue a contract beyond the basic contract term, including any exercised options shall only occur when such extension can be justified under one of the statutory authorities identified in 48 CFR 6.302 and when authorized by the Head of the Agency.

10. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

There have been no inquiries from any company in recent years. No other sources have expressed a written interest in this contract. SC thinks it is unlikely that qualified offerors would compete for the SLAC contract at this time.

11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required.

Since 2005, DOE has conducted competitions for the management and operation of seven other Office of Science national laboratories–LBNL, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Ames Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Despite efforts, in each case, to solicit as much competition as possible, only one competitive proposal was submitted for each solicitation, and the offer was from either the incumbent or a separate corporate entity that included the incumbent. DOE’s efforts to solicit competition included: 1) issuing draft solicitations; 2) holding comment workshops, one-on-one meetings, and pre-proposal conferences; and 3) maintaining websites to provide information to interested parties. There appears to be a trend that indicates the research and development business of the Office of Science national laboratories is a more specialized area for contractors to pursue than that of other government contracts, which have more competitive sources that are much more motivated by significantly higher fees than that available under laboratory contracts.

Nonetheless, the Department will continue to evaluate future acquisitions in this area with a preference for full and open competition, while recognizing that the statutory and regulatory authority to noncompetitively extend an M&O contract may be justified on a case-by-case basis.

PAUL GOLAN Digitally signed by PAUL GOLAN Date: 2021.08.06 12:40:08 -07'00'

Juston K.

Fontaine

Digitally signed by Juston K. Fontaine Date: 2021.09.20 12:48:08 -04'00'

Certification The information contained in this “Justification of Other than Full and Open Competition for SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC)” is certified accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Acquisition Initiator:

Paul M. Golan Date Manager, Bay Area Site Office

Contracting Officer:

Kyong H. Watson Date Bay Area Site Office-SLAC

Contracting Officer: _

Digitally signed by

KATHERINE WOO

Date: 2021.08.05

12:07:53 -07'00'

Assistant Chief Counsel:

John Cummins Office of Chief Counsel, Chicago office Date

Reviews Contracting Activity Competition Advocate:

Contracting Activity Legal Counsel:

Head of Contracting Activity:

Calvin Q. Ma Date Consolidate Service Center - Office of Science

Don Thress Date Offices of Chief Counsel, Oak Ridge

Juston K. Fontaine Date Deputy Director Field Operations Office of Science

Program Senior Official:

J. Stephen Binkley Date Acting Director, Office of Science Department of Energy

Approval Senior Procurement Official:

John R. Bashista Date Director, Office of Acquisition Management

Donald Thress Digitally signed by Donald Thress Date: 2021.08.06 14:49:43 -04'00'

Calvin Ma Digitally signed by Calvin Ma Date: 2021.08.06 12:46:37 -05'00'

Digitally signed by KYONG

KYONG WATSONWATSON

Date: 2021.08.05 12:19:42 -07'00'

Katherine A. Woo Bay Area Site Office-SLAC John

Cummins

Date Digitally signed by John Cummins Date: 2021.08.06 00:26:42 -07'00'

9/23/21