Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 990, Sourcing & Special Projects Office, P274, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545

F -- MANAGE AND OPERATE A HAZARDOUS MIXED WASTE DISPOSAL FACILITY Contact MR. Eppie Trujillo, 505/667-6696 or David M. Jones, 505/667-9285. The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) intends to release a Market Survey/Request for Information (RFI). This RFI will provide an information database which will be used to consider potential offerors and facilitate expressions of interest (EOI) in the potential business opportunity summarized below. PURPOSE - LANL proposes a Mixed Waste Disposal Facility (MWDF) to provide for the treatment and permanent disposal of solid hazardous and low level mixed waste (mostly soil and debris). The source of the waste for this treatment, storage, and disposal (TSD) facility would be the clean-up of contaminated sites and decontaminated and decommissioning (D&D) activities. Mixed wastes are hazardous waste regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) that also have a radioactive component. OBJECTIVES - The major objectives are to conceive, develop, design, permit, construct, and operate the facility. There are six distinct system functions: 1) receive waste, 2) verify waste manifest, 3) unload and sample waste for verification, 4) treat waste, 5) verify treatment, and 6) dispose of the waste. Note, that temporary storage of the waste may be necessary while awaiting treatment verification. Additional systems include secondary containments for the mixed waste dust, solids, and liquids. BACKGROUND - The proposed site for the MWDF is an active security area on property owned by the Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE property is located in the county of Los Alamos, New Mexico and is approximately 100 km (60 mi.) north-northeast of Albuquerque and 40 km (25 mi) Northwest of Santa Fe. The site is on a mesa top with approximately 20 hectares (50 acres) available for the facility. The mesa top slopes downward from west to east and lies approximately 900 feet above the water table. The site is in a semi-arid, temperature climate with an average precipitation of nearly 47 cm (19 in.) and a 25-year storm expected to produce a rainfall intensity of 9.65 cm (3.75 in.) within a 15-minute period. Winter precipitation falls primarily as snow, with accumulations of about 150 cm (59 in.) annually; snowstorms with accumulations exceeding 10 cm (4 in.) are common. The soil at the proposed site of the MWDF and the solid hazardous and mixed waste soil from the clean-up of contaminated sites and D&D activities may derive from any of several units of the Tshirege Member of the Bandelier Tuff, which erupted from the Jemez Mountains about 1.22 million years ago. This soil is generally devitrified, moderately to densely welded ash flow tuff. Topsoil measures 0. to 2.4 m (0 to 8 ft.) deep, but the depth of the topsoil decreases until tuff is exposed before the mesa ends at the canyon walls. Water does not easily penetrate the soil/tuff layers that overlie the water table because some of the tuff layers are compressed. DESCRIPTION OF WASTE CONSTITUTUENTS - The current in-place volume of contaminated sites and decontamination and decomissioning (D&D) activities range from a low of 69,000 to a high of 238,490 cubic yards of waste. Correspondingly, the estimated disposal volume ranges from a low of 150,000 to a high of 470,000 cubic yards. Historic knowledge, process knowledge and a limited amount of analytical data indicate that 36 RCRA waste codes may be identified at the Laboratory. Of these 36 waste codes, 26 are D-codes, 6 are F-codes, and 4 are K-codes. The D-codes are D001, D002, D003, D004, D005, D006, D007, D008, D009, D010, D011, D012, D013, D015, D016, D017, D018, D019, D020, D021, D022, D023, D024, D025, D026, D027, D028, D029, D030, D031, D032, D033, D034, D035, D036, D037, D038, D039, D040, D041, D042, and D043. The F-codes are F001, F002, F003, F004, F005, F006, and F007. The K-codes are K044, K045, K046, and K086. Historic and process knowledge indicates that the typical low level radiological constituents that may be identified at the Laboratory are Americium-241 (AM-241), Rubidium-106 (RU-106), Carbon-14 (C-14), Strontium-90 (Sr-90), Cesium-137 (Cs-137), Technetium-99 (Tc-99), Cobalt-60 (Co-60), Thorium-230 (Th-230), Thorium-228 (Th-228), Thorium-232 (Th-232), Potassium-40 (K-40), Tritium (H-3), Putonium-238 (Pu-238), Uranium-234 (U-234), Putonium-239 (Pu-239), Uranium-235 (U-235), Radium-226 (Ra-226), Uranium-238 (U-238), and Radium-228 (Ra-228). DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY - Under the President's Reinventing Government reforms and the related Department of Energy's Contract Reform Initiative, a competitive privatization approach is being pursued. LANL, operated by the University of California, is considering a competitve fixed price solicitation based on a fixed price per ton of waste shipped to the facility for processing. Under this approach, the vendor would secure private financing to design, permit, build, operate, and decontaminate and decommission the processing equipment and facility. The vendor would also maintain, operate, and monitor the disposal cells for the regulated 30 year post closure period. The vendor would bear the up-front costs of fabricating equipment and putting the facility in place, and bringing them to full operational status and then operate the faciliy to treat the mixed waste. LANL prefers to not make any payments until the waste has been treated and deposited into the disposal cells in a form and manner consistent with contract specifications and regulatory requirements. Determining whether the treated and disposed wastes meet the specifications would be done on the basis of audits and inspections to assure that the specifications are met before payment would be made. LANL will not follow the traditional self-regulation approach for safety and environmental oversight. Due to the radiological and RCRA hazard of processing the mixed waste, and in the context of direct private ownership and control of operations and facilities, it is anticipated that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the state of New Mexico's regulatory agencies, and the Environmental Protection Agency would be the licensing agencies. It would be the responsibility of the selected vendor to secure and comply with all licensing, permitting and compliance activities. LANL does not intend to oversee or inspect facilities during construction or operation for regulatory compliance since this would be the responsibility of the vendor and the appropriate regulatory agency. SPECIFIC INFORMATION SOUGHT BY THE LABORATORY - LANL is interested in getting feedback from interested vendors on the following topics: 1) What assurances would a vendor view as necessary for a fixed price, pay upon treatment and disposal of waste, based upon the volume of waste received? 2) Would a fixed price based upon a unit volume of waste received with payment made upon treatment and disposal of the that unit volume of waste be an acceptable form of payment? Are other considerations necessary? If so, what are they? 3) Is the vendor willing to borrow private funds to design, construct and operate the proposed facility with payments made upon treatment and disposal of each unit volume of waste? 4) Is the vendor able to borrow private funds to design, construct and operate the proposed facility with payments made upon treatment and disposal of each unit volume of waste? 5) What assurances or guarantees would be required from the Laboratory to enable a vendor to obtain private financing to cover the cost of design, construction and start-up of the facility? 6) What are the vendor's views on the terms and conditions for which the contract may be terminated by either the Laboratory or the vendor? For example, the Laboratory, due to a lack of federal funding, is unable to deliver waste to the vendor in a particular year. List all foreseeable conditions for contract termination or adjustment. 7) What are the vendor's views on indemnification since this facility will be treated in a manner consistent with private, commercial facilities? 8) The laboratory requests information on whether a single company possesses sufficient experience to design, construct and operate such a facility. 9) Will a partnership of vendors be required to provide sufficient experience to design, construct and operate such a facility? 10) LANL requests the vendor's or the partnership's experience with designing, constructing, and operating a facility dealing wit similar hazards and/or radioactive wastes? 11) What treatment processes does the vendor envision for this mixed waste problem? Describe your current concept of the facility. 12) Should the Laboratory design and operation standards apply to the facility? 13) Should DOE design and operation orders apply to the facility. 14) What other regulations or orders beside CFR10, CFR29, CFR40, and the state of New Mexico regulations should apply to the design, construction and operation of the proposed facility? 15) Should the facility be located as proposed or should it be located off Laboratory/DOE property? 16) What are the vendor's views on the type of construction for the administration and treatment building(s)? 17) What information is required by the vendor that is not listed below under Other Relevant Information? OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION LANL recognizes that interested vendors will need additional detailed technical information on waste volumes, contaminates, proposed remediation schedule, proposed method of delivering waste to the facility, assumptions concerning applicable LANL and DOE standards and federal and state regulations and required project milestones. To receive an information packet please submit a written request to Los Alamos National Laboratory, ATTN: Eppie Trujillo, M/S P-274, PO Box 990, Los Alamos NM 87544, or FAX your request to (505) 665-5135 ATTN: Eppie Trujillo. Requests for information packets must be made within 14 calendar days from the date of this publication. LANL has not made a final commitment to procure the stated requirements. This request for an EOI should not be construed as a commitment or authorization to incur any cost in anticipation of a requirement. This determination will be made subsequently based in part on the response of potential vendors. (192)

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