University of Chicago considers Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) bid

The University of Chicago is actively seeking a partner to bid on the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory’s new contract, a key university spokesman said during a recent tour of the facility.

By Steven Friederich – Journal Writer

In April, the Department of Energy decided to split the contract in two – one contract to manage research and the other to clean up the site’s radioactive waste.

The research portion combines the university’s Argonne West with the site’s research center. The entire site, located in the Arco desert, will be renamed the Idaho National Laboratory.

The University of Chicago has run Argonne National Laboratory since 1949. In fact, its team of scientists created the first nuclear reactor in the world to produce usable electricity at Arco.

But the university has never had to actively bid on a contract before and it previously didn’t identify a need for any partners.

"Not only do we want a partner, we definitely, desperately need one," said Argonne spokesman Paul Pugmire. "We have the knowledge to run the facility, but we don’t have the know-how to convince DOE through a bid process of that fact."

University officials met with Department of Energy representatives in August, according to DOE documents.

Since then, Pugmire said the privately owned higher education institution has created a team of about a dozen members to actively pursue the contract. Pugmire said the team will only grow within the next few months as DOE prepares its draft contract the university would have to bid on.

Together, the two contracts are worth about $6.5 billion – with the environmental cleanup portion worth $4 billion and research funded at $2.5 billion, DOE documents show.

"Let me be absolutely clear, environmental cleanup is a huge responsibility, but the University of Chicago will definitely not pursue that contract," Pugmire said. "We don’t want the responsibility."

Corporations the university could team with that already met with DOE about the research portion of the contract include Honeywell International Inc., Bechtel National Inc., and BWX Technologies – though the university isn’t limited on whom it could team up with.

Bidding on the INL will also give the university some experience in the competitive process. Its Argonne National Laboratory East must be re-bid in the next two years, Pugmire said.

"I would hate for us to choose between both the east and the west, but we’re confident we can do nicely with both," Pugmire said.

He added the university is spending an untold fortune in the bidding process and for the first time since he can remember, he’s actually keeping a time card to manage his DOE-funded job as a communications director and as a member of the university-funded bidding team.

Despite documents showing DOE expected the draft research contract to be released in early fall, the contract has not yet been released for unknown reasons.

But even though DOE hasn’t released its draft research contract yet, the questions it asked interested parties to answer before meeting with them in August implies information the contract could contain.

For example, the questions indicate the contract holder needs to have ties to higher education and be able to quickly transition into the new research contract, which could obviously work to the university’s advantage. Additionally, it also should have at least a 10-year vision, be able to work with small businesses and find ways around barriers including locating funds beyond those provided by DOE.

The contract holder would also manage the creation of the next generation nuclear reactor, which quite possibly could be built at the Argonne West facility. Congress has already allocated $15 million for the Generation IV reactor, which would produce both nuclear power and pure hydrogen for President George W. Bush’s hydrogen efficiency initiative to create hydrogen fuel cells that reduce the nation’s dependency on gasoline.

An additional $1.14 billion for the reactor is in an energy bill stalled in the U.S. Senate. Sen. Larry Craig said he hopes to push the bill for final approval before the Senate adjourns the day before Thanksgiving.

INEEL is already spending more money on nuclear energy research and development. A recently released formal mission statement shows the site spent $29 million in nuclear research in fiscal year 2003, nearly 65 percent more than the previous fiscal year. And work volume is expected to increase to more than $50 million in fiscal year 2004, a jump of more than 70 percent.

Noted fiscal year 2004 projects, according to the mission statement, include nuclear reactors for space and advanced fuel cycle work – both areas the University of Chicago has been working on.

In 1986, the university created a nuclear reactor that became the first to demonstrate that nuclear reactors could have inherent safety systems. The reactor was shut down permanently in 1994, but its protective cone remains intact.

Inside the dome, Pugmire said the area would be perfect to create a beta nuclear propulsion reactor for space ships. Additionally, University of Chicago scientists created a Zero Power Physics Reactor, one of only two in the country. The ZPPR has been used to test 20 different reactor types from around the world, Pugmire said.

A recent initiative from NASA also allows the university to create nuclear-powered space batteries for probes, including one scheduled to go to Pluto and another to the icy moons of Jupiter.

Additionally, Argonne successfully manages to recycle about 5 tons of spent nuclear fuel a year and has created a theoretical system where a nuclear reactor could "eat its own waste as fuel," Pugmire said.

Steven Friederich is a county, state and federal political reporter for the Journal. He can be reached at (208) 239-6001 or by e-mail at [email protected].

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