SOURCES SOUGHT
11 -- Purpose Built Tritium Transport Cask
- Notice Date
- 7/5/2017
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 332420
— Metal Tank (Heavy Gauge) Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Energy, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory - Battelle (DOE Contractor), PNNL Contracts, PO Box 999, Richland, Washington, 99352
- ZIP Code
- 99352
- Solicitation Number
- MARTIN_RFI_TransportCask
- Point of Contact
- Laurie Martin, Phone: 509-372-4071, Alfred Garcia, Jr., Phone: 509-375-4312
- E-Mail Address
-
laurie.martin@pnnl.gov, al.garcia@pnl.gov
(laurie.martin@pnnl.gov, al.garcia@pnl.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Introduction Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle), Pacific Northwest Division in operation of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the U.S. Department of Energy is requesting information, seeking sources, and conducting market research from potential suppliers regarding their capabilities with respect to design, fabrication, and certification of a purpose-built transportation cask (and the associated purpose-built trailer [preferably within legal weight limits]) for irradiated tritium producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) to support the Tritium Sustainment Program. The purpose-built transportation cask shipments will be from the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA's) Watts Bar Nuclear Plants 1 and 2, located near Spring City, Tennessee, to the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) located at the Savannah River Site (SRS). Transport of the purpose-built transportation cask and associated purpose-built trailer shall be conducted over-the-road exclusively. TPBARs are similar in size and nuclear characteristics to standard, commercial PWR, stainless steel-clad burnable absorber rods. The TPBAR cladding is Type 316 stainless steel. The TPBAR exterior is a stainless steel tube that is approximately 152 in. long. The nominal outer diameter of the stainless steel cladding is 0.381 in. The TPBARs contain lithium aluminate annular pellets, with an inner zircaloy liner and an outer nickel-plated zircaloy tube. Each TPBAR contains a maximum of 1.2 g of tritium. Section I: Description of Need Battelle is seeking information from potential suppliers regarding their capabilities to design, fabricate, and certify a purpose built transportation cask (and the associated purpose-built trailer [preferably within legal weight limits]) for irradiated TPBARs. The transportation cask manufacturer must have the capability to: 1. Design and fabricate a purpose-built transportation cask for the shipment of TPBARs. The cask design shall allow for the maximum number of TPBARs to be transported, while still operating within the facility constraints (e.g., TEF extraction basket size). 2. Acquire a purpose-built trailer, preferably within legal weight limits, for the purpose-built transportation cask. The definition of legal weight limit may be dependent on state; therefore, the cask manufacturer must ensure the purpose-built transportation cask and purpose-built trailer system is permittable for the shipments specified in this RFI. 3. Develop a safety analysis report (SAR) and other applicable documentation for the purpose-built transportation cask. 4. Obtain and maintain a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) certificate of compliance (CoC) for the purpose-built transportation cask. 5. Provide CoC renewal and maintenance of the SAR. The purpose-built transportation cask shall be designed to ship as many TPBARs as possible (preferable to be in excess of 1500 TPBARs) while staying within the source term and shielding requirements. The following items shall be considered for the design of a purpose-built transportation cask: 1. The maximum number of TPBARs in a consolidation canister shall be able to be shipped in the purpose-built transportation cask. The current transportation cask system carries 300 TPBARs in a square consolidation canister. • The TPBARs have to be remotely brought up out of the consolidation canister to have the top cut off and then the TPBAR is lowered back into the consolidation canister. There must be room in the top of the consolidation canister for a funnel. When the tops are cut off of the TPBARs, they are placed in the funnel and fall down along the sides of the consolidation canister. • To allow for a greater number of TPBARs and still attempt to meet the legal-weight truck limit, a hexagonal consolidation canister could be considered. The hexagonal consolidation canister could be considered so that a smaller cask cross-section and overall weight reduction could be achieved. 2. The source term can be found in TTQP-1-111, Unclassified Bounding Source Term, Radionuclide Concentrations, Decay Heat, and Dose Rates for the Production TPBAR (https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1528/ML15282A576.pdf, Appendix 1-C, Tables 3, 4, and 5 [pages 6 of 43 through 9 of 43]). Note that this source term information is preliminary and an updated source term will be provided during the RFP process. The following assumptions should be taken into consideration by the cask manufacturer: a minimum of 60 days cooled on average (note that for RFI purposes, 90 days provided in TTQP-1-111 may be used), dose rates for shielding, and pressurization under TPBAR breach conditions. 3. The number of times the purpose-built transportation cask is lowered into the spent fuel pool for loading shall be minimized. 4. Only the level of shielding required shall be integrated into the design of the purpose built transportation cask. 5. The purpose-built transportation cask shall be designed for ease of decontamination. 6. The purpose-built transportation cask shall be designed to minimize tritium uptake in internal cask materials through surface treatment, coating, design features, or some other applicable means. 7. It is preferable that the purpose-built transportation cask with its purpose-built trailer meet the legal weight truck limits (fully loaded gross vehicle weight that does not exceed 80,000 lb) if possible. However, consideration will be given to proposed designs that are slightly over and remain permittable. 8. The accompanying purpose-built trailer needs to be of standard length and width (approximately 53 ft long and 8 ft wide) in order to be accommodated inside the TEF and Watts Bar facilities. 9. The purpose-built trailer shall be able to be accommodated by a tractor that has no more than a triple axle (including the front axle set). The purpose-built transportation cask and purpose-built trailer system must still meet over-the-road requirements with the triple axle tractor. In addition, the purpose-built transportation cask and purpose-built trailer system must exhibit as low a center of gravity as possible. Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar Nuclear Plant is a pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear plant. Tritium has been produced at Watts Bar Unit 1 since 2004. It is planned that Watts Bar Unit 2 will produce tritium beginning in November 2020. There is a central spent fuel pool for both reactors. At the current time, Watts Bar is locking down the facility for shipment of the TPBARs for at least one (1) week based on the current transportation cask capacity (currently one cask will transport one consolidation canister with a maximum of 300 TPBARs). Watts Bar constraints for the purpose-built transportation cask include: 1. No more than 300 TPBARs are currently loaded into the existing consolidation canister. If there were a greater number in the existing consolidation canister, it would be difficult to perform operations due to rod to rod friction and bowing/distortion of the TPBARs. As such, if more TPBARs were to be accommodated, the cross section of the consolidation canister would need to be changed (i.e., the geometry would need to be changed). 2. Because of the way the current consolidation canister is staged, it has to be accommodated in the spent fuel storage racks in the spent fuel pool (i.e., the current consolidation canister size is limited by the spent fuel rack compartment size). It may be possible, however, for the consolidation canisters to be staged in the outload pool. However, this would require the design and fabrication of a purpose-built rack for staging as part of the cask manufacturer submittal. 3. Maintenance of equipment for accessing TPBARs in the spent fuel pool. All TPBAR handling equipment is specifically designed and built for this function. 4. The auxiliary crane has been upgraded because of the requirement to handle dry storage casks and far exceeds weight capacity for TPBAR handling and shipping cask manipulation. Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) When the purpose-built transportation cask is received at the TEF, it will be moved into a shielded area and the cask lid will be removed remotely. Note that after the cask lid has been removed, all operations will be performed remotely. The consolidation canister will be removed from the purpose-built transportation cask, placed in an extraction basket, and transported to the interim storage area by a trolley system. The cask lid will be replaced on the empty cask and the cask removed from the shielded area. See Transport and Disposal of Tritium Producing Burnable Absorber Rods at the Tritium Extraction Facility, WSRC MS-2004-00840 (https://www.osti.gov/scitech/servlets/purl/837902), which discusses aspects of these processes at TEF. TEF constraints for the purpose-built transportation cask include: 1. The TEF crane capacity is 125 ton. 2. The consolidation canister needs to be able to be accommodated by the TEF extraction basket. It is preferable to have as large of a consolidation canister as possible within the bounds of the TEF extraction basket dimensions (see WSRC-MS-2004-00840 for a description). 3. There is a limiting weight and fixed diameter on the trolley. The trolley is rated for 100 ton capacity (originally designed for 131 ton, but rated to 100 ton). 4. The TEF furnace opening provides just enough clearance for the extraction basket (which contains the consolidation canister) and cannot be changed. 5. Post-extraction, when there are four consolidation canisters (each in a TEF extraction basket), TEF starts loading the TEF waste containers. Each TEF waste container holds four consolidation canisters in a TEF extraction basket. The TEF waste container trailer (containing the TEF waste container with the four consolidation canisters in the TEF extraction basket) is rated to 100 ton. Section II: Responding to this RFI If your company has the potential to manufacture, deliver, and support the purpose-built transportation cask and associated purpose-built trailer described in Section I, please provide the information listed below. Respondents who best meet the stated requirements may be contacted regarding participation in the future. Identifying Information and Qualifications (Required): 1. Company Name/Division 2. Business / Administrative point-of-contact name, title, telephone, and email address 3. Technical point-of-contact name, title, telephone, and email address 4. Small business qualification status 5. Country where business is owned and operated 6. Please provide answers to this short survey a. How long has your company been in business? b. Please describe your company's bestselling products and/or services. c. What is your company's primary market sector? d. How many years' experience does your company have producing/marketing/ supporting your current offerings? e. Please describe your experience, if any, with tritium or TPBARs, and knowledge of NUREG-1609, Supplement 2. f. Please describe your experience, if any, with maintenance, decontamination, refurbishment, etc. of transportation casks. g. Please describe your experience with the design of transportation casks. h. Please describe your experience with fabrication of transportation casks. i. Please describe your experience with NRC certification of transportation casks. j. Please describe your experience with legal weight truck transport casks, including shipment and permitting. k. Please describe your experience with transportation, logistics, and security for transportation cask shipments, if any (i.e., full service support for the transport of the transportation cask). l. Please describe your company's Quality Assurance Program, including any NQA-1 certifications. 7. Based on the responses from the survey above, develop a short white paper of no more than 5 pages elaborating on your answers, and further addressing: a. How the proposed purpose-built transportation cask and purpose-built trailer fits within your company's existing mission, and future goals to support the Tritium Sustainment Program. b. Detailed performance of your proposed purpose-built transportation cask and purpose-built trailer including: i. Feature(s) that may be incorporated into the design to mitigate tritium uptake. ii. Feature(s) that may be incorporated into the design for ease of decontamination. iii. The estimated number of consolidation canisters (i.e., TPBARs) that may be transported in the purpose-built transportation cask. This may include the possible redesign of the consolidation canister to accommodate additional TPBARs, taking into consideration the constraints discussed in this RFI. iv. The ability of the cask manufacturer to work with the existing infrastructure at the Watts Bar and TEF facilities, or to assist in the collaboration and modification of the current infrastructure (e.g., handling equipment). v. Providing a purpose-built transportation cask and purpose-built trailer system definition that meets the legal weight truck limits, but maximizes the number of consolidation canisters (i.e., TPBARs) that may be transported at one time. vi. Trailer manufacturers that could support the acquisition of the associated purpose-built trailer for the purpose-built transportation cask. vii. The cask manufacturer's ability to fabricate at risk during CoC review and prior to CoC award. c. Any challenges anticipated in manufacturing or supporting the design, fabrication, and certification of the proposed purpose-built transportation cask and purpose-built trailer, and how they will be addressed. Section III: Submission Details and Questions 1. Responses are limited to five (5) pages; font size shall be no less than 12 points (10 points for figures and tables). Attachments (product brochures, publications, company info) may be submitted, and will not be included in the page limit. 2. Please provide any other information you believe to be important and germane to the purposes of this Request for Information. 3. Proprietary information submitted as part of the response to the RFI must be clearly identified and marked as PROPRIETARY. 4. Submissions will be reviewed by the project team. Responses will be evaluated according to the interest expressed by each company, and the technical ability and resources to build, market, sell, and support the system. 5. Potential respondents may submit questions regarding this RFI to the contacts listed below. Responses to questions received on or before July 28, 2017 will be posted on FEDBIZOPPS. PNNL may consider questions received after that date, but there is no obligation for PNNL to post any further answers. 6. Please provide contact information for the person responsible for the information in the response, or the person we should contact with questions. Contact: Laurie Martin, Principal Contracts Specialist through the following email address: laurie.martin@pnnl.gov PNNL will only give consideration to submissions in response to this notice that are in the form of Microsoft Word documents attached to emails received no later than August 4, 2017 addressed to Laurie Martin, Principal Contracts Specialist, at the following email address: laurie.martin@pnnl.gov   Contracting Office Address: PO Box 999 MSIN K9-15 Richland, Washington 99352 Place of Performance: TBD as this is currently an RFI United States Primary Point of Contact.: Laurie Martin, Principal Contracts Specialist laurie.martin@pnnl.gov Phone: 509-372-4071 <img style="overflow: hidden; cursor: hand; height: 16px; width: 16px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; right: 0px; position: static !important; float: none; left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; top: 0px; bottom: 0px;" title="Call: 509-372-4071" src="data:image/png;base64,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" alt="" />
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOE/PNNL/PN/MARTIN_RFI_TransportCask/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: TBD as this is currently an RFI/Sources Sought action, United States
- Record
- SN04566761-W 20170707/170705234928-30eb34af4e8e2c4ea9492a7215501b55 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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