Background: The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) is the Nation's federal health sciences university and is committed to excellence in military medicine and public health during peace and war. We provide the Nation with health professionals dedicated to career service in the Department of Defense and the United States Public Health Service and with scientists who serve the common good. We serve the uniformed services and the Nation as an outstanding academic health sciences center with a worldwide perspective for education, research, service, and consultation; we are unique in relating these activities to military medicine, disaster medicine, and military medical readiness. USU is located in Bethesda, MD on the grounds of the Naval Support Activity Bethesda.

The mission of the USU is to provide the highest quality education programs in the health sciences to those selected individuals who demonstrate dedication to a health profession career in the Uniformed Services.

Potential Vendor: General Atomics., San Diego, CA, 92121

Intent to Sole-Source: USU intends to award a firm-fixed-price contract for nuclear reactor spare parts to General Atomics (GA). USU requires spare parts for its Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics (TRIGA) nuclear reactor located in its Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI). 

 
Sole Source Justification: General Atomics developed the TRIGA; GA designed, tested, and installed the instrumentation and controls for this particular reactor, so only they can properly modify their off-the-shelf parts to support it. The parts that USU is seeking are documented in the Facility Safety Analysis Report, which is part of AFRRI's U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) license, R-84. Any replacements for these parts are required to be identical in order to maintain compliance with the R-84 license. It is imperative that GA be used as the sole source for reactor spare parts going forward. Any changes in this arrangement will necessitate a very lengthy and labor-intensive license amendment process (requiring approval by the NRC). Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations 50.59 specifically addresses these requirements for any changes. Further, even if such a change were successfully made to the R-84 license, it does not seem reasonable that another vendor could successfully modify GA's custom parts.

In accordance with FAR 5.207(c)(16)(i), all responsible sources may submit a bid, proposal, or quotation which shall be considered by the agency. Responses to this notice must demonstrate clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government, would not be cost or time prohibitive, and that the interested potential vendor could provide an on-premise ePortfolio solution. Information received will be considered for the purposes of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. The Government will not be responsible for any costs incurred by responding to this notice.

Responses must be received via email at [email protected] by 12:00PM on Saturday, August 31, 2019