DOE REJECTS PROPOSAL TO REMOVE TRU SLUDGE EXPERTISE FROM TWPC REQUIREMENTS

The Department of Energy has rejected a suggestion from some potential bidders on the new contract to manage the Oak Ridge Transuranic Waste Processing Center to remove a call for expertise with transuranic sludge processing equipment from a recently released sources sought notice. At issue is a provision in the sources sought notice asking companies to detail their “specific experience in conducting full scale testing of transuranic sludge processing equipment at a pilot facility and experience in progressing the design and construction of a Category II nuclear processing facility” as part of the market research DOE is performing in preparations for competing the new contract. In a question submitted to DOE, released yesterday, one interested company asked DOE to eliminate the “transuranic sludge” portion of the provision and instead add the language “full scale factory testing of processing equipment,” saying the change was needed “to ensure adequate competition.”