Provision of Schematic Design for National Radioactive Waste Management Facility (NRWMF)

⁠⁠⁠The Australian Government recently announced the establishment of the Australian Radioactive Waste Agency (ARWA). ARWA is leading the process to deliver Australia’s National Radioactive Waste Management Facility (NRWMF). ARWA’s responsibilities cover the full life-cycle of the NRWMF including design, licensing, construction, operation and decommissioning.

The NRWMF will be a purpose built facility to permanently dispose of Australia’s low-level radioactive waste and for the temporary storage of intermediate-level waste. The government has identified Napandee, near Kimba in South Australia, as the preferred site to host the facility.

As the custodian of Australia’s nuclear science, technology, and engineering capabilities and expertise, ANSTO is committed to providing benefits to the Australian and broader international communities. ANSTO plays a critical role in the production of nuclear medicine for cancer treatments and medical diagnoses, the operation of landmark research infrastructure to enable cutting edge nuclear science, and the irradiation of silicon for use in high-end electronics.

An inherent by-product of these activities is radioactive waste. Finding a long-term management solution for Australia’s radioactive waste is a national responsibility and is of critical importance to ANSTO. Although safe and effectively regulated by Commonwealth and State/Territory agencies, current waste management practices across Australia are temporary in nature. Moreover, many waste storage facilities, including those operated by ANSTO, are nearing capacity.

ANSTO has been engaged by ARWA to provide a broad range of services to develop the NRWMF engineering design, and associated safety, security and operational framework. This tender is for the appointment of a lead engineering consultant (Consultant) to support ANSTO in progressing the project from the current concept design through to preliminary design. This will require the Consultant to have expertise across a broad range of architectural and engineering disciplines. Jacobs Group (Australia) previously provided services to support ANSTO in developing the concept design. Services were also previously provided by Altus Group to support ANSTO for quantity surveying cost estimation based on the then generic concept design documentation.

ANSTO is calling for tender responses from suitably qualified and experienced companies to bid for a head consultancy contract. As the NRWMF site has now been selected, the prior generic concept designs will be progressed to a site specific concept design. Design development will subsequently proceed in greater detail to enable ANSTO to fulfil its contractual obligations to ARWA, to support ARWA obtaining relevant authority approvals and to support the future procurement of the facility.

The Consultant will be expected to have the capabilities and experience to deliver services which will include, but not be limited to, the following streams:

• Architecture services

• Mechanical & HVAC Engineering;

• Electrical Engineering including Power and Communications ;

• Civil Engineering;

• Instrumentation and Control system Engineering

• Processes Engineering;

• Structural Engineering;

• Geotechnical Engineering;

• Hydrological Engineering;

• Quantity surveying including cost planners for reports and modelling;

• Fire Engineering;

• Hydraulics Engineering; and

• Transport safety, planning and logistics

Due to the specialised and novel nature of the works, ANSTO is seeking respondents with a demonstrated capacity to meet the specification requirements outlined herein. Owing to the locations of the NRWMF site and the major stakeholders involved in the project, organisations with offices throughout Sydney, Canberra and/or South Australia are encouraged to make submissions.

ANSTO will engage the Consultant for Services requiring the expertise in all of the above streams to deliver the deliverables set out in this document. The Consultant may be required to provide Services alongside and in cooperation with other external consultants, and at times potentially engage and manage the services of sub-consultants. However, the use of all sub-consultants is subject to the approval of ANSTO and ARWA.

The Consultant appointed under this specification will be engaged until the end of FY22, with ANSTO able to provide a notice of extension for any activities described in this document up to the conclusion of FY24. Performance reviews of the Consultant will be undertaken periodically.