The Energy Department’s Office of River Protection could issue a sole-source contract for Rutgers University in New Jersey to study factors connected with vitrifying tank wastes at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
Although DOE is not aware of other sources capable of doing the work, interested small businesses meeting certain size standards can submit a statement of capability by July 17, according to a July 2 notice posted on FedBizOpps.gov. The aggregate value of the contract would be $1.6 million over three years.
The federal agency is looking for a vendor to conduct studies on proposed changes in the processing of both low-activity waste (LAW) and high-level waste (HLW) at Hanford. The analysis will concern challenges connected with the direct-feed strategy for waste disposal, according to DOE.
The Office of River Protection (ORP) oversees management of 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste at Hanford, the byproduct of decades of plutonium production for the U.S. nuclear deterrent.
Rutgers has a faculty with over six years of experience with high-level waste research in support of DOE-ORP’s Environmental Management (EM) program. The Rutgers faculty also has a “deep understanding” of the principles of the vitrification process, in which radioactive waste is converted into a glass form for disposal, according to the notice. The Waste Treatment Plant being built at Hanford would vitrify much of the site’s radioactive waste.
The contract would be issued to Rutgers’ School of Engineering, and its Department of Materials Science and Engineering in Brunswick, N.J. The study would look at overcoming challenges posed by salt formation and corrosion of certain equipment, often associated with direct feeds, which can shorten a melter’s lifespan.
The point of contact is DOE Contracting Officer Margit Larrieu, at [email protected].
