NEXT Beamlines Go Shopping

February 21, 2014

procurement enlarge

Posted on FedBizOpps.gov on February 13, 2014:

  • at 1:08 p.m. – Optical Components Package for ISR
  • at 1:21 p.m. – Kirkpatrick-Baez Mirror System for ESM
  • at 1:38 p.m. – Collimating Mirror and Tank Package for ISS

FedBizOpps.gov is the website for Federal Business Opportunities, the single government point-of-entry for vendors who wish to provide goods and services worth over $25,000 to the federal government.

In the span of just 30 minutes on February 13, three solicitations were announced for components of three NEXT beamlines at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. That pace echoes the pace of construction for this group of six beamlines, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. When fully built out, NSLS-II will accommodate more than 60 beamlines. Thirty are now under development, including the NEXT beamlines.

NEXT is short for NSLS-II EXperimental Tools. Here are the six NEXT beamlines:

All are in various stages of development, with various procurement needs.

Procurement supervisor Janet Schlock works with six other buyers — Sheri Alexander, Phil Bernath, Roseann Callister, Michelle Cooper, Frank Nemeth, and Jeanmarie Volkmann. At the moment, according to Schlock, her team is processing over 60 procurements for NEXT. “Some contracts take years to complete, but they all start the same way,” she said. “The scientist and/or engineer writes specifications and funding has to be allocated before we write and issue a solicitation.”

Sheri Alexander is handling two of the three solicitations posted February 13 on FedBizOpps.gov. “For the beamlines to perform as specified, we have to procure world-class, one-of-a-kind components. These are not off-the-shelf items,” said Alexander. Because of that, the buyers often include design as one of the solicitation requirements. “Given the complexity of our requirements, we can expect bids from anywhere, both domestic and foreign,” she added.

That’s not so different from the dipole, quadrupole, sextupole and corrector magnets that now fill the NSLS-II tunnels and form the guts of the accelerator itself. They came from China, Denmark, England, New Zealand, Russia and the U.S. Those contracts took several years to complete, noted Schlock. “To satisfy our requirements, we use low-bid and best-value solicitations,” she said.

The NEXT Project was baselined in October 2013, which set the budget and schedule for the six beamlines. Construction will be completed in 2017.

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