Presolicitation Notice - 1333ND22RNB610029.pdf

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) owns and operates a heavy water-moderated nuclear test reactor and associated neutron beam research facility. The NCNR’s reactor is licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) under the name National Bureau of Standards Reactor

(NBSR).

On February 3, 2021, The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) (event notification EN 55094) of an alert concerning elevated radiation levels at the NIST Reactor. Pursuant to the event notification received from NCNR staff on February 3, 2021, the NRC initiated a special inspection at the NCNR. On April 14, 2021, the NRC staff issued an interim special inspection report to provide an initial assessment of their understanding of the event sequence, consequences, and the NCNR’s response to the event (ADAMS Accession No. ML21077A094) . On March 16, 2022, the NRC released a final report of its initial conclusion from its special inspection report. The final report confirms and expands on many aspects of NIST’s analysis of the incident, pointing to deficiencies in policies, procedures, training and safety culture as contributing to the incident.

In addition to the NRC special inspection, NIST conducted an internal root cause analysis and invited four outside experts to review the NIST analyses and planned corrective actions, as well as the organizational response to the February 2021 event. Links to NIST’s press releases and reports can be found on the NIST website.

NIST takes very seriously the findings of the NRC Special Inspection and is committed to ensuring that an incident like that of February 3, 2021, never reoccurs. The corrective actions developed in response to this incident are designed not only to prevent this type of incident recurring in the future but also to improve all aspects of reactor operations and nuclear safety at the NCNR. This comprehensive set of corrective actions broadly address improvements in safety culture and management systems, as well as specific aspects of operations.

On August 1, 2022, a Confirmatory Order Modifying License No. TR-5 was issued by the NRC. The issued Confirmatory Order documents the NCNR completed and planned actions, as well as the commitments made by NIST to ensure the safe operation of the research reactor in the NCNR, which experienced an unplanned shutdown on Feb. 3, 2021.

This requirement will be pursued as a Single Award Task Order Contract (SATOC), to provide NCNR with access to independent nuclear consultant(s) to conduct comprehensive independent third-part assessments of the following Program Areas outlined below; to provide a separate report detailing the findings of regulatory or programmatic non-compliance (internal NCNR procedures and/or license), recommendations for improvement, and noteworthy practices; and to assist NCNR in the identification and implementation of the recommendations and corrective actions identified in the assessment(s), and program improvement initiatives to prevent recurrence of the February 3, 2021 event or similar events at the NBSR. This requirement includes services as defined in the scope below. It is not guaranteed that all identified services will result in actual awarded tasks. The purpose of the task list is to provide a general scope of the services that may be sought.

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/2021/20210204en.html#en55094 https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2107/ML21077A094.pdf https://nrcpublicblog.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/ml22056a361-nist-sit-inspection-report.pdf https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2127/ML21274A018.html https://www.nist.gov/director/pao/community-relations/qa-about-feb-3-ncnr-alert https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2220/ML22206A213.pdf

The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code applicable to this project is NAICS code 541690. The Small Business Size Standard is $16,500,000.00. This requirement will be solicited for Full and Open Competition, using Contracting by Negotiation procedures under the authority of FAR Part 15.

The competitive Request for Proposals (RFP), amendments, and all questions and answers related to this procurement shall be made available through the Internet at HTTP://WWW.SAM.GOV under RFP number 1333ND22RNB610029.

Potential offerors shall be responsible for obtaining this solicitation and related amendments, if any, from HTTP://WWW.SAM.GOV after the solicitation has been posted. It is, and will continue to be, the responsibility of each potential offeror to monitor HTTP://WWW.SAM.GOV for any amendments or other information related to the solicitation.

Any communications regarding this acquisition must be made in writing and forwarded via email to forest.crumpler@nist.gov and donald.collie@nist.gov, and shall identify the solicitation number, company name, company address, as well as point of contact email address and phone number.

NIST anticipates posting the solicitation no earlier than fifteen (15) days after the date of publication of this notice.

NCNR Program Areas to be Assessed:

1. Nuclear Safety Culture

2. Problem Identification and Resolution (PI&R)

3. Event Root Cause

4. Training

5. Procedures

6. Design and function of Safety Assessment Committee (SAC) and Safety

Evaluation Committee (SEC) http://www.sam.gov/ http://www.sam.gov/ http://www.sam.gov/ mailto:forest.crumpler@nist.gov mailto:donald.collie@nist.gov