Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
11/7/2014
Potential bidders on the Department of Energy’s new contract to manage Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed facilities are raising questions about the skill mix required in the recently issued draft Request for Proposals for the planned small business contract. Industry officials last week completed a site tour of one of the facilities to be managed under the new contract in Colorado and met with DOE officials on the contract, while another tour in Idaho is set for next week. Of particular concern is the skill mix needed to both provide protective security at the facilities and implement an NRC license renewal plan at the Three Mile Island fuel storage facility at Idaho. “To find a small business that has the protective security standpoint, not just safeguards and security, but actually has security force experience and has NRC licensing experience, that’s a stretch. Those two don’t go together,” an industry official told WC Monitor this week.
The new contract is open to small businesses meeting a $38.5 million size standard and would cover the Fort St. Vrain facility in Colorado; the Three Mile Island-2 (TMI-2) ISFSI facility at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) in Idaho; and the Idaho Spent Fuel Facility (ISFF) license. The firm-fixed-price contract includes a cost reimbursable contract line item (CLIN), and it is expected to run for up to five years, consisting of a four-year base period and a one-year option period. The work currently is largely being performed by Idaho cleanup contractor CH2M-WG Idaho, and is being competed as part of DOE’s larger cleanup contracting strategy for Idaho after the end of the current two cleanup contracts at the site in September 2015.
Small Business May Have Trouble Covering All Requirements
In addition to the NRC relicense, according to the draft RFP the contractor must provide 25 full time employees for security at the Fort St. Vrain facility, while physical security at the Three Mile Island facility will be provided by the Idaho National Laboratory contractor. However, the security requirements at Fort St. Vrain still could comprise the majority of the workforce. Being able to cover everything will be a stretch for a small business, the official said. “You are going to have to either show capabilities or team with somebody or get backing from a bigger company. There are a lot of different ways to skin that cat, but the way it’s written right now it’s hard for one company to show that previous experience,” the official said. “Then it’s a $5 million contract per year where you’re going to be subbing out two-thirds of it.”
The risk involved in relicensing the facility could be hard for a small business to take on under a fixed price contract, given uncertainty with how the NRC will approach the effort, another potential bidder told WC Monitor. The relicensing is “the big wildcard” the first official said. “The current staff doesn’t have any experience with that. They weren’t the guys who did it the first time. That’s where the big stretch is in experience for one company to have. There haven’t been a lot of NRC license extensions granted in the noncommercial arena,” the official said. “That requires a specific skill set and experience level that doesn’t gel with the rest of it.”
Draft RFP Envisions Four-Year Commitment for Key Personnel
The draft RFP also includes a four-year commitment for the three key personnel for the contract, double the commonly used two-year period. If there is a change, the contract price could be reduced by $50,000 for the project manager and $30,000 for the security manager and ESH&Q safety manager. “That’s a big commitment for any contract, especially a small business one,” the official said, suggesting that there should be language included to allow for a change with approval from DOE. “It needs to be changed so that there’s a process defined by which you can do that because otherwise it’s going to be hard to commit someone to that,” the official said.
