NNSA RELEASES DRAFT RFP FOR NEW GTRI CONTRACTING VEHICLE

The National Nuclear Security Administration has scaled back its Global Threat Reduction Initiative contracting plans to reflect trimmed down future budgets, and yesterday it released a draft Request for Proposals for international nuclear material removal work with a ceiling of $20 million. That’s $80 million less than the ceiling for the agency’s last GTRI contracting vehicle, a small business Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract awarded to three teams in 2007.

This time around, the NNSA said it will select one team to prepare, package, load, and transport spent and fresh nuclear fuel from research reactors around the world rather than three, though there are questions as to whether any of the incumbents—Pro2Serve, GEM Technology International Corporation, and a joint venture between TerranearPMC and EnergySolutions—will be able to compete. While the latest scope of work does not include security projects as the last GTRI contracting vehicle did, it’s likely that the scaled down $14 million size standard established in the draft RFP and “freight transportation arrangement” North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code would preclude the incumbents from bidding. The previous ID/IQ contract was competed under the “remediation services” NAICS code. Questions on the draft RFP will be accepted by the NNSA through Sept. 10.