The National Nuclear Security Administration said Monday it is seeking providers for the transport of radioactive irradiated tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs). The request for information also said the agency wants to “identify small business concerns with the capability to perform the services” in order to assess a possible set-aside.
The acquisition is meant to ensure transport systems are available to ship irradiated TPBARs in support of national security mission requirements, the draft work statement said, noting that the contract will bridge a five-year period. “This would allow the NNSA time to develop another strategy for shipping 1,500-1,600 TPBARs per 18 month cycle per reactor, after 2023,” the document said. The shipment schedule outlines quantities of over 1,100 rods in each of the first few deliveries.
Tritium is a component of all the nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile and must be periodically replenished due to its short half-life. The NNSA last year decided it would irradiate up to 5,000 tritium rods every 18 months via two Tennessee nuclear reactors.
NNSA spokeswoman Amy Boyette said by email the agency currently plans to irradiate 3,000 rods by 2025. “The transportation services request is based on a five year window from 2018 to 2023, in which there is a ramp up to the operational requirement of irradiating 3,000 tritium rods,” she said, noting the NNSA expects to issue a new request for those services after 2023.
The transportation services would cover shipment of thousands of radioactive irradiated TPBARs from the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Tennessee to the Tritium Extraction Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, with some smaller shipment services required from the Tennessee facility to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state and the Nevada National Security Site, the draft work statement said.
Boyette said roughly eight tritium rods would be shipped to PNNL every 18 months for research and development purposes.
The contractor must have the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s certificate of compliance for its transportation containers, along with meeting other requirements. Interested companies must submit a capability statement by 5 p.m. Mountain time on April 28 by email to Katy Florez at [email protected].
