The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) intends to negotiate and award a noncompetitive purchase order to COMSOL, Inc., 100 District Avenue, Burlington, MA, 01803-5043, for purchase of the following software license renewals and related new subscriptions: Description and Quantity COMSOL Multiphysics, Named Single User License (NSL), 36 months subscription. 1 COMSOL Heat Transfer Module, Named Single User License (NSL), 36 months subscription. 1 COMSOL Pipe Flow Module, Named Single User License (NSL), 36 months subscription. 1 COMSOL Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Module, Named Single User License (NSL), addition to existing license, 12 month subscription. 1 COMSOL CFD Module, Named Single User License (NSL), 24 months subscription. The COMSOL Multiphysics package was initially procured in 2009 for work on the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) program due to its unique capabilities to couple different types of physics (e.g.,(CFD), heat transfer, stress analysis). During that program, the NRC's Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) staff developed significant expertise using COMSOL that would be difficult to redevelop with another software tool. RES staff is familiar with other finite element ananlysis (FEA) software packages and none have the unique pipe flow capability of COMSOL. While that software is not the only finite element analysis (FEA) tool available in the commercial marketplace, it is uniquely capable of meeting RES' needs for modeling advanced non-light water reactors. The user interface combines the capabilities of a CAD program for geometry creation, an advanced FEA meshing tool, the selection and coupling of different physics interfaces (e.g., CFD, heat transfer, stress analysis) with a highly parallel solver capability and a post-processing package. In particular, the COMSOL Pipe Flow module provides a unique capability for embedding 1D fluid channels within a solid 3D structure. This allows for a mixed-scale level of resolution for problems that would be too large to be solved by CFD. The authority for this acquisition is FAR 13.106-1, which permits soliciting from a single source, if the contracting officer determines that the circumstances of the contract action deem only once source is reasonably available. COMSOL, Inc. indicated that they do not authorize other sources to provide COMSOL Multiphysics software. Therefore, the NRC intends to contract directly with them to satisfy these requirements.
