HSHQDC-08-R-00011-ResponsetoQuestions(2-19-08).doc

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Washington, DC 20528

February 19, 2008 The following questions were received through FedConnect on or before the deadline for submission of questions on 2/8/2008 regarding the submission of white papers as required by the solicitation instructions. There were no questions received by the specified deadline related to white papers. However, the responses to the questions received by 2/8/2008, 12:00 noon, local time, are provided herein.

As stated in the Solicitation No. HSHQDC-08-R-00011, Section 7.1, the deadline for receipt of questions for the white paper process was February 8, 2008, 12:00 noon, local time through FedConnect at www.fedconnect.net . Questions regarding the white paper process received after 2/8/2008, 12:00 noon, local time are considered late and will not be addressed.

Prospective offerors are advised, as stated in the solicitation, that the deadline for receipt of questions for full proposals is April 11, 2008, 12:00 noon, local time through FedConnect at www.fedconnect.net . Late questions will not be addressed. In addition, questions submitted through any mechanism other than FedConnect will not be addressed.

The responses to the below questions does not in any way amend or change the solicitation. If any changes are made to the solicitation, an amendment will be issued.

1. Can you please indicate the maximum value of program that will be considered under this BAA.

Response: This information is clearly provided in Section 1.4 of the solicitation.

2. Solicitation 01 was recently posted (Feb 4, 2008) on FedBizOps. However, in reviewing the current information on FedConnect, I could not determine if there were any changes to the original BAA issuance. Is it possible to obtain clarification on the Feb 4th posting?

Response: The modification to the pre-solicitation notice posted on Fedbizopps on February 4, 2008 provided a direct link to FedConnect. It did not and was not intended to amend the solicitation in any way. If the solicitation is changed in any way, a formal amendment will be issued to the solicitation as required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

3. The following questions pertain to topic ERT-03: Active Integration, sub-topic 2.3.2 Advanced Sources. Specifically the questions are in regard to the “tunable, high-duty, monochromatic photon source with a selectable set of highly-repeatable energies with automatic energy selection.”

What are the spectral characteristics required from this source, in other words;

a. What wavelength range is of interest?

Response: Greater than 400 keV up to at least 4 MeV with a goal of 10 MeV.

b. Must the source be continuously tunable over this range or are there discrete lines of interest within the range?

Response: Both would be acceptable.

c. What is the line-width requirement for a given wavelength?

Response: This depends on the concept of operation. In general, the line-width should be as tight as possible without sacrificing too much yield.

4. What is the desired duration for individual output pulses?

Response: This depends on the concept of operation and can not be answered generally.

5. What are the energy levels the source must switch between?

Response: Greater than 400 keV up to at least 4 MeV with a goal of 10 MeV. Discrete energy states will not be given at this time.

6. What is the tolerance of error for a given energy level in order to qualify as highly-repeatable?

Response: This depends on the concept of operation and can not be answered generally.

7. What is the pulse repetition frequency desired for a string of output pulses?

Response: Accelerator parameters, such as pulses per second and photons per pulse, are application-venue-dependent and should take into consideration issues such as detector saturation, voxel resolution, throughput considerations, etc. Therefore, there is no one answer to this question. It is up to the offerors to make a case for their particular source and parameters for the venue(s) they are addressing.

8. Will the source be expected to operate for extended periods of time at this frequency or will it be operated in a burst mode of a limited duration?

Response: This depends on the concept of operation and can not be answered generally.

9. We did not receive an email from Fedconnect that this BAA was posted.

Response: A modification to the Pre-Solicitation Notice was posted on Fedbizopps on January 28, 2008, which stated that Solicitation No. HSHQDSC-08-R-00011 was issued through FedConnect. In addition, a second modification was posted on Fedbizopps on February 4, 2008, which provided a direct link to FedConnect to access the solicitation. On February 11, 2008, the solicitation was posted on Fedbizopps at www.fedbizopps.gov . FedConnect is not a system that provides notifications to the business community. The original Pre-Solicitation Notice posted on Fedbizopps clearly advised prospective offerors that the solicitation would be issued through FedConnect and indicated that FedConnect was the only mechanism through which the solicitation, questions, white papers and full proposals could be submitted.