JA - Operational Support for Radionuclide IMS (Redacted).pdf

DDefense Threat Reduction Agency

8725 John J. Kingman Road, Stop 6201 Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6201

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION

1. Nature and/or Description of Action

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) contracting activity proposes to procure, without using full and open competition, a contract for Operational Support for Radionuclide International Monitoring System (IMS).

2. Description of the Supplies/Services Required

DTRA is the Department of Defense (DoD) executive agent for the Nuclear Arms Control Technology (NACT) program which operates, maintains, and improves the majority of the U.S.

portion of the International Monitoring System (IMS). The U.S. IMS supports United States Government (USG) and DoD objectives and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban- Treaty (CTBT) for nuclear detonation monitoring, mitigation of impacts from natural and other catastrophes, and other civil and scientific applications. DTRA requires unique and highly-specialized engineering capabilities to operate and sustain the 11 US IMS radionuclide monitoring stations located in the continental United States (CONUS), Alaska, Hawaii, US-controlled Pacific Territories, and Antarctica. These stations, which include 11 radionuclide particulate systems and four radionuclide noble gas systems, were designed and installed under supervision of the NACT program, and are certified and operated according to the technical requirements specified in the relevant IMS CTBT Operational Manual. The end product is the timely delivery of quality radionuclide particulate and radionuclide noble gas monitoring data to the International Data Centre (IDC) enabled by the operations and maintenance services of the radionuclide stations provided by the performer.

The contractor shall:

Operate, maintain, and upgrade: eleven (11) radionuclide particulate monitoring stations at the following locations: Sacramento, California (RN70); Sand Point, Alaska (RN71);

Melbourne, Florida (RN72); Palmer Station, Antarctica (RN73); Ashland, Kansas (RN74); Charlottesville, Virginia (RN75); Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska (RN76); Wake Island (RN77); Midway Island (RN78); Oahu, Hawaii (RN79); and Andersen Air Force Base, Guam (RN80); and four (4) radionuclide noble gas monitoring stations at the following locations: Ashland, Kansas (RN74); Charlottesville, Virginia (RN75); Wake Island (RN77); and Oahu, Hawaii (RN79).

Provide all necessary logistical support and sustainment for each US IMS station’s infrastructure and installed monitoring systems, including but not limited to: system and component repairs; facility power, communications, and environmental; spare and depot management; hardware and software upgrades; and recapitalization planning for stations and systems. Perform preventive and unscheduled corrective maintenance of the station infrastructure and equipment to enable the continuous operational capability of the station and optimal data availability and data quality.

Perform system and sensor calibrations and tuning as necessary to ensure stations meet operational data quality requirements specified in the operations manuals.

Conduct Operations and Maintenance (O&M) activities in accordance with existing or planned support and lease agreements, to include agreements at NACT US IMS stations located on private, State, or other non-Federal properties, for operators access and cost reimbursement for select operations costs such as utilities and rents.

Coordinate with the Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS) of the Preparatory

Commission for the CTBT Organization (CTBTO PrepCom) as required for operations, maintenance, and status reporting of the US IMS radionuclide stations.

Support the Global Communications Infrastructure (GCI) performer as required to troubleshoot and fix communications problems at any US IMS radionuclide station.

Conduct engineering and research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) tasks on systems and components to operationalize prototypes, conduct test and evaluation, and transition system or components into normal station operations. Conduct the necessary acceptance and revalidation tasks required by the PTS for the station to be returned to operations and data accepted in the IDC.

Provide and maintain unique radionuclide monitoring engineering and operational subject matter expertise (SME) and provide technical leadership/advice on related DTRA RDT&E projects.

This work is currently being performed by General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) on contract number HDTRA1-17-C-0074, with a period of performance that ends on September 27, 2022. A sole-source contract will be awarded to GDMS. The follow-on work will consist of a 12-month base award with up to four 12-month option periods starting September 28, 2022.

The estimated dollar value is approximately which includes the base effort, optional procurement funding for station recapitalization, and optional RDT&E funding based on mission needs, for a total of for the entire proposed contract period of performance.

3. Statutory Authority

The statutory authority for this non-competitive action is: 10 United States Code (U.S.C.)

3204(a)(l) as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source.

4. Applicability of Authority

DTRA entered into a contract with GDMS under the authority of Justification and Approval (J&A) for Other Than Full and Open Competition on contract number HDTRA1-17-C-0074, dated December 12, 2016, titled “US International Monitoring System (IMS) radionuclide operations and maintenance support for the Nuclear Arms Control Technology (NACT) program”.

GDMS is the only contractor to ever manufacture, deploy, operate, maintain, and sustain the US radionuclide particulate monitoring system termed the Radionuclide Aerosol Sampler/Analyzer (RASA). Market research reveals there are no other contractors with experience operating, maintaining, or sustaining the radionuclide particulate systems because they involve one-of-a-kind technology sensors advanced by GDMS from the initial design to the currently fielded systems. This fully automated radionuclide particulate system was designed and developed specifically to detect trace amounts of radioactive material from nuclear explosions and to operate in the IMS. Reliable operation of the system requires expertise in mechanical, software, and nuclear engineering. Additionally, GDMS is an experienced operator and maintainer of the radionuclide noble gas system termed the Swedish Automated Unit for Noble Gas Acquisition (SAUNA) manufactured by Scienta Systems.

Based on the market research, an award to any other source would result in an estimated duplication of cost of over and a delay of approximately five (5) years in fulfilling the Agency’s requirements while the new source came up to speed on the intricacies of the unique systems. This estimate is based on the contract period required for GDMS to initially build the core engineering expertise and capabilities to first achieve treaty-specified performance levels.

The required engineering expertise needed to operate and maintain these highly-complex monitoring stations is obtained and sustained by daily remote monitoring of the stations’ operating performance, troubleshooting of problems, and, on-site “hands-on” repairs.

Significant risk of not achieving treaty compliance standards would be incurred with a new contractor and would severely limit the U.S. capability to detect, locate and identify nuclear explosions resulting in a degraded IMS.

5. Effort to Solicit Potential Sources

A sources sought notice was published on SAM.gov (formerly FedBizOps) with Notice ID:

HDTRA1IMSRadionuclide on June 14, 2021. Responses were received and considered by the Government. The conclusions are discussed in the Market Research section below.

A notice of the proposed contract action will be published on SAM.gov as required by FAR 5.2, Synopses of Proposed Actions. Moreover, this J&A will be posted on SAM.gov in accordance with FAR 6.305, Availability of the Justification.

6. Fair and Reasonable Costs

The anticipated cost of this contract action to the Government will be determined fair and reasonable based on comparisons with historical data from the current and previous contract efforts for the same or similar services, a cost analysis of the contractor’s proposal, and the technical evaluation determining the cost realism of the proposal submission.

7. Market Research

Market research was performed in order to determine potential sources which can assist the agency in radionuclide operations support requirements. A sources sought notice was published on SAM.gov (formerly FedBizOps) with Notice ID: HDTRA1IMSRadionuclide on June 14, 2021.

Responses from three (3) potential performers were received on July 15, 2021: GDMS, and

The market research revealed GDMS has 21 years of experience operating and maintaining the radionuclide particulate monitoring system, Radionuclide Aerosol Sampler/Analyzer (RASA), installed at each of the 11 US IMS stations. Research indicated this technology was initially developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in 1997. Research also revealed Scienta Systems has a proprietary license of the Swedish Automated Unit for Noble Gas Acquisition (SAUNA) systems at the four US IMS stations, and is the only commercial vendor of these systems. GDMS also has over 14 years of experience in operating the SAUNA system for the NACT program, and adapting the SAUNA to meet the US site specific requirements of the US IMS locations. Furthermore, as NACT radionuclide O&M lead, GDMS is required to operate a radionuclide maintenance depot with adequate spares to enable timely repairs and required upgrades to fielded NACT RASA and SAUNA radionuclide systems.

Historical acquisitions and personal knowledge resources within the program office have also been reviewed. GDMS has demonstrated the ability to perform the operations, maintenance, and sustainment of the radionuclide monitoring stations from day-one with no risk. The response was tailored to the IMS requirement, but their expertise is in O&M of facilities and HVAC equipment not nuclear detonation monitoring equipment. For nuclear detonation monitoring expertise, proposed a non-specific teaming approach. The response did not address the IMS requirement and only referenced their capabilities with expertise in O&M of facilities, HVAC equipment, and army testing equipment. The responses from and did not demonstrate their abilities for supporting NACT operations, nor convey a firm grasp of the NACT requirements. As such, both would require a teaming approach for the radionuclide monitoring systems to meet the requirements for the radionuclide stations. This approach would result in an 8-10% estimated cost increase for the Government. Additionally, market research revealed that the teaming for the radionuclide monitoring systems would still have to be with GDMS, the incumbent and an independent respondent to the sources sought notice. In conclusion, the market research reveals this requirement cannot be met by any other entity.

8. Interested Sources

GDMS, and

9. Subsequent Actions

As similar radionuclide O&M support acquisitions are undertaken in the future, market research will be conducted in order to further assess the potential for competition.

Technical Certification

I certify that the data and information forming the basis for this justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Program Manager

Contracting Officer Certification

2/8/2022

Date

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

SALIM.TABASSA Digitally signed by

SALIM.TABASSAM.S.

02/09/2022 Contracting Officer Date

General Counsel Coordination

This justification is legally sufficient.

Attorney Date

Approval

Based on the above justification, I hereby approve accomplishment of this acquisition by means other than using full and open competition.

Competition Advocate Date

Head of Contracting Activity Date