NOTICE OF PROGRAM INTEREST SUBJECT: Approach to Procure the Design and Fabrication of Rolling Stock (Escort Cars) for the OCRWM Program AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management _____________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY The Department of Energy (DOE) is issuing this Notice of Program Interest (NOPI) to obtain input from rolling stock vendors as the DOE develops approaches to procure the design and fabrication of escort cars for shipping spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) to a monitored geologic repository (MGR) at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. DOE is responsible, under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), for accepting and transporting spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear reactor sites and high level waste and spent nuclear fuel from DOE federal facilities for ultimate disposal. The DOE is considering the design and fabrication of the rolling stock needed to ship SNF/HLW to the MGR. The required rolling stock includes cars to carry the containment casks, escort cars to accommodate personnel accompanying the trains, buffer cars to provide a physical separation between cars carrying SNF/HLW and those occupied by personnel, and locomotives to haul the cars. An overview of the program, including the anticipated project schedule, is provided in Appendix A. Currently, escort car procurement is on the critical path. With this notice, the DOE is seeking comments from vendors concerning the appropriate structure for an escort car procurement process that meets the objectives of the spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste management program and is attractive to potential bidders. Your comments will help DOE refine the process and will provide a basis for the discussions with vendors in the initial stage of the process described below. This notice applies solely to Escort Cars. Further details of the anticipated requirements for the Escort Cars may be found in Appendix B. It is anticipated that DOE will select two vendors, each to complete the design and fabrication of a prototype car, test their respective prototype cars at the Transportation Test Center in Pueblo, CO and obtain certification of their designs by AAR. It is then anticipated that both vendors will be invited to submit proposals for final design and fabrication of a fleet of up to thirty (30) Escort Cars in accordance with the certified designs. The DOE is planning to conduct this procurement in the following stages: 1. Meetings with individual vendors (July 2004) DOE will schedule meetings of up to two hours each with individual potential vendors for the design and fabrication of rolling stock. These meetings will allow companies to share information with the DOE and obtain clarification of any of the issues outlined below. Potential vendors may distribute written information regarding their products and capabilities for use during the meeting, and collect it at the end of the meeting. If proprietary information is left with the DOE, the pages that are considered to be proprietary should be either stamped or a header placed on the pages to identify those pages. The two-hour meetings will be held in June/July 2004. Vendors are allowed to bring no more than five people. The meetings will be held in the Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, Washington, D.C. The meetings will be scheduled with the point of contact identified on your letter of interest. 2. Draft RFP (late 2004). It is anticipated that the DOE will publish a Draft RFP on the FedBizOpps website (http://www.fedbizopps.gov/) for formal comments from the potential vendors and other interested parties. 3. Pre-Solicitation Conference. The DOE is planning to hold an open-forum meeting for all parties interested in this procurement in late 2004. The final time, place and other details will be announced on the FedBizOpps website and by email to points of contact identified during the initial vendor meetings. 4. Final RFP (early 2005). It is anticipated that the DOE will publish the final Request for Proposals on the FedBizOpps website for vendor response. 5. Award(s). It is anticipated that the DOE will select a vendor or vendors in 2005. The DOE is interested in vendor comments on the following issues. 1. Criteria for selecting design fabrication vendors. The DOE has initially identified the following selection criteria: - Technical capability to develop designs matching the unique characteristics of the Escort Cars - Cost-effectiveness of the design in fabrication, operation, and maintenance - Ability to obtain certification for the new designs - Corporate experience/past performance/record of integrity - Corporate financial capacity and stability - Key personnel - Ability to meet schedule requirements Is this set of selection criteria sufficient? Do you suggest modifications or additions? 2. Phases of the procurement. The DOE is considering this procurement of escort cars to occur in two phases: a. Car Design / Prototype Fabrication and Testing: At least two contractors shall individually provide a detailed design, fabricate a complete prototype, complete analysis and testing at the Transportation Test Center (Pueblo, CO) to demonstrate the conformance with AAR Standard S-2043, and obtain a certificate of compliance from AAR. A copy of this AAR standard is provided in Appendix C. The design shall also demonstrate quality attributes, safety and security provisions, performance characteristics and the operations and maintenance concept. b. Production: Contractor(s) selected from those that have completed the Car Design / Prototype Fabrication and Testing phase shall provide a final design incorporating any changes required to obtain certification, as well as final interior design, and shall fabricate the number of cars specified by DOE. Is this procurement phasing appropriate? Would another approach be advisable? If so, please describe. 3. Please address the optimal business, contractual and pricing arrangements that should be employed to meet design, prototype and fabrication requirements for these cars. In particular address the following: - How can competition be maximized throughout the design/prototype/fabrication process? - As an alternative, is it feasible and/or advantageous to procure a design followed by separate contract(s) for prototype and fabrication? 4. Contract pricing. Do you have comments with respect to suitable pricing arrangements? DOE anticipates the use of Firm-Fixed-Price contract vehicles for all contract actions and phases. Would another approach such as time and materials or cost reimbursement be more appropriate for a particular phase? What pricing terms allow for an equitable sharing of risk on each phase? Does your Firm possess a government-approved accounting system that will allow the use of cost reimbursement contracts? In addition to addressing these questions please feel free to provide any other relevant input or suggestions regarding contract-pricing terms. 5. Information requirements. What type of technical and commercial information do you need to enable a complete and competitive proposal to be submitted? 6. Collaboration. To support Program'Vwide objectives, contractors may be required to collaborate with other vendors on a given task or requirement, i.e., all vehicle testing. Please address how this collaboration and integration may be achieved. Also, identify the business considerations with other Rolling Stock vendors that might limit the level of collaboration. 7. Performance incentives. Please describe incentives that could be employed through a contract to encourage excellent performance, compliance with schedule requirements and cost reductions. Where possible please discuss: - The metrics that should be employed. - The frequency and method of data collection associated with metrics. - Positive or negative financial actions associated with the metrics. 8. Regulatory requirements. Please identify any technology or regulatory challenges or barriers associated with the design, development and fabrication of the Escort Cars. In particular, address the impact of AAR Standard S-2043 on the design and production of the Escort Cars, whether as an adaptation of an existing design or a completely new design. 9. On-going design efforts. Please identify any on-going design efforts directed toward the development of new or modified rolling stock that could be employed to meet the required AAR Standard S-2043 and Escort Car and consist functionalities. Appendices for this notice may be obtained by contacting Reggie James at
contact@example.gov. Please provide your responses to the above questions by email in a Microsoft Word file to
contact@example.gov no later than June 21, 2004. Please limit your comments and responses to no more than 10 pages. No proprietary data should be included in data file that is submitted to the DOE. Please also complete the form in Appendix D as soon as possible and return by email to
contact@example.gov United States Department of Energy Office of Business Support Attention: Reggie R. James, RW-31W 1000 Independence Avenue Washington, DC 20585
