The Department of Energy is assessing potential vendor interest in processing, shipping, and disposing of radioactive waste from the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) in New York state.
In a request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice Wednesday, the DOE Office of Environmental Management requested capability statements from interested parties with the expertise to do the work. The market research will help the agency in developing its acquisition strategy.
The RFI was posted online at www.FBO.gov.
The Energy Department is making plans for waste with transuranic and comingled chemical constituents at the SPRU site at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Niskayuna, N.Y. Decommissioning and decontamination activities in 2015 and 2016 generated 24 containers of TRU or suspected TRU waste, according to the RFI. The waste includes absorbed sediments, piping, debris, tanks, and equipment from a processing building and a waste management facility.
Some, but evidently not all, of the waste will need to be managed as TRU once it has been characterized, treated, segregated, and repackaged, according to the RFI. The SPRU site does not have needed facilities or permits to do this work on-site, so the department will need to rely on a contractor. The Energy Department expects some of the waste will be determined non-TRU and shipped to DOE-licensed disposal sites for low-level radioactive waste. Defense-related TRU would either be sent back to SPRU or shipped to another Energy Department facility for processing.
The Office of Environmental Management envisions the work being executed between Aug. 1, 2020, and July 31, 2021. The RFI does not list any dollar value for the work.
Capability statements are due by 7:30 a.m. Eastern time on Aug. 19, and should be sent to DOE Contracting Officer Ian Rexroad, at [email protected].
The Separations Process Research Unit operated from 1950 to 1953 as a pilot facility to research the REDOX and PUREX chemical processes to extract uranium and plutonium from irradiated uranium. Contractor AECOM is winding down its demolition and removal work of facilities at SPRU.
