THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 16, 1994 TAG: 9408160308
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Newport News Shipbuilding will lead a team of companies bidding for a Department of Energy contract to design and build casks for storing and transporting spent nuclear fuel from the nation's commercial reactors.
The project could provide relief for the giant Peninsula yard, which has been suffering from Navy cutbacks since the demise of the Cold War. Newport News, which is looking for more non-military work, estimates the contract could be worth about $100 million.
``It would fit in well with our strategic plan to diversify,'' said yard spokesman Jack Schnaedter.
The contract calls for the design, testing and licensing of the nuclear waste storage casks, known as ``multi-purpose canister systems,'' with an option to manufacture the first 200 or so casks.
The government will own the design. However, the company that builds and designs the first 200 casks could have a permanent leg up on the competition to make others.
Ultimately, the DOE will request bids for another contract to manufacture thousands of the casks to handle a projected 86,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from the power-generating nuclear reactors around the country, said Ronald A. Milner, director of the office of program management and integration at the Energy Department.
Based on attendance at a June bidders conference, as many as 10 groups may be planning to submit bids for the contract, Milner said.
The casks include a sealable steel canister that will house spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors and at least three different methods to pack the canister - one for storage, one for transportation and a third for ultimate disposal. The DOE is trying to develop a permanent high-level nuclear waste dis
posal facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
The system is designed to reduce the risks of handling spent nuclear fuel. Under current procedures bare spent fuel may be handled several times as it is moved between the source, storage sites and transport vessels. The proposed system would place the spent fuel directly in the steel canisters where it will remain as it is stored, transported and eventually disposed of.
``Any time you don't have to handle bare spent fuel, you eliminate risk,'' Milner said.
Newport News Shipbuilding's bid includes support from at least six partners. The yard will provide engineering support and manufacture the canisters.
VECTRA Technologies of Federal Way, Wash., will design and license the system.
Ranor Inc. of Westminster, Mass., will help with engineering and manufacturing.
Yankee Atomic Electric Co. of Bolton, Mass., will provide design and licensing support and testing.
Manufacturing Sciences Corp. of Oak Ridge, Tenn., will build system components.
Testing support and shielding analysis will be provided by Sandia National Laboratories of Albuquerque, N.M., and Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories of Richland, Wash.
Last year, Newport News Shipbuilding joined with Virginia Power in an unsolicited bid submitted to the Energy Department to design and manufacture nuclear waste storage casks.
Virginia Power bowed out of the formal bidding this spring when it could not persuade the department to remove a requirement for a fixed-price bid, said spokesman James Norvelle. If it underbid a fixed-price contract, the Richmond-based utility would have to make up the costs elsewhere and it couldn't justify jeopardizing the rates it charges for power, Norvelle said.
So Newport News Shipbuilding developed its own team and plans to submit a bid by the Oct. 3 deadline. Virginia Power, meanwhile, is joining another team of companies that plans to bid for the project, Norvelle said.
The contract is scheduled to be awarded in March 1995 with delivery of the casks beginning in 1998. by CNB