NS&D Monitor
6/20/2014
IN DOE
Only one team is believed to have submitted a proposal for the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory contract this week. Incumbent Brookhaven Science Associates—a partnership of Battelle and Stony Brook University—is believed to have been the only team to submit a proposal for the contract after interest from groups like Southeastern Universities Research Association, AECOM, Universities Research Association, URS, and others, fizzled. Shortly before proposals were due June 19, DOE made a minor amendment to the procurement’s Request for Proposals, clarifying the procedures for submitting Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence information. DOE advised potential offerors to access up-to-date information on its FOCI website at https://foci.anl.gov.
IN THE DNFSB
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board would receive $29.15 million for next year under the House version of the Fiscal year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, reported out of the full House Appropriations Committee this week. The bill would provide slightly less than the $30.15 million the Board had requested for FY 2015, but would mark an increase of approximately $1.15 million from current funding levels. Details of funding for the DNFSB in the Senate version of the energy spending bill, reported out of subcommittee this week, were not publicly available.
ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT
The Department of Energy has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help continue Norway’s support of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nonproliferation program. The MOU was signed this week by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende, extending a relationship that dates to 2005. Norway and a handful of other countries have contributed $94.5 million since then to bolster NNSA’s nuclear security work around the world, but the amount of Norway’s latest contribution was not disclosed this week. “We appreciate Norway’s continued commitment to advancing our common international security goals,” Moniz said in a statement. “Our partnership with Norway allows us to accelerate programs aimed at preventing nuclear and radiological terrorism around the world.” Norway’s contributions will go toward efforts to curb nuclear smuggling in Central and Eastern Europe under NNSA’s Second Line of Defense Program and Global Threat Reduction Initiative.
