SELECTION PROCESS FOR NEW NUCLEAR MATERIAL SHIPPING CONTAINER DESIGN AGENT

The Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in April 2006 acted on a need to replace the Department of Transportation (DOT) 6M Specification 110- gallon container with a modern performance-based container. The new container needed to be certified and ready for use either before, or soon after, October 1, 2008, when the DOT Specification packages can no longer be used. Discussions about starting a design effort for this container had been occurring within the DOE’s Secure Transportation and Packaging Steering Committee for some time without action being taken despite several DOE Program Offices needing this container. The NNSA has two container design centers having extensive experience with nuclear material shipping containers. These two design agencies, Savannah River National Laboratory and Y-12, were asked to provide concepts for the new package. The NNSA requested information from each design agency concerning their concept for developing a replacement container. The NNSA provided a set of questions to be answered by each site regarding their design concept. These questions formed the framework for the site’s proposals and for NNSA in evaluating each concept. While the standard cost, scope, and schedule elements were a part of the selection criteria, they did not take precedence over other factors in making the decision. The strength of each design concept and unique features was considered along with how soon each site could start the design. Other elements considered during the evaluation process included the current and future workloads of each design center along with their available manpower. This paper will describe the situation within the NNSA packaging program at the time the decision was made. The overall status of the packaging program was also factored into the decision. The paper will also present the evaluation criteria and describe the evaluation process leading to the selection decision. Both concepts received were very solid, and either proposal would have resulted in a very viable new container. The decision was made by evaluating the strengths versus the risks of each proposal. The paper will describe how BWXT Y-12 was selected to develop the new ES-4100 container.