[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 1 (Monday, January 3, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 184-186]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-33043]


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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


Notice of Buy American Waiver Under the American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act of 2009

AGENCY: National Science Foundation (NSF).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: NSF is hereby granting a limited exemption of section 1605 of 
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), 
Public Law 111-5, 123 Stat. 115, 303 (2009), with respect to the 
purchase of the anti-roll tank control system that will be used in the 
Alaska Region Research Vessel (ARRV). An anti-roll tank is a system 
that is built into a vessel's hull to reduce rolling motion when 
operating at sea.

DATES: January 3, 2011.

ADDRESSES: National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, 
Virginia 22230.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Jeffrey Leithead, Division of 
Acquisition and Cooperative Support, 703-292-4595.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with section 1605(c) of the 
Recovery Act and section 176.80 of Title 2 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations, the National Science Foundation (NSF) hereby provides 
notice that on October 22, 2010, the NSF Chief Financial Officer, in 
accordance with a delegation order from the Director of the agency, 
granted a limited project exemption of section 1605 of the Recovery Act 
(Buy American provision) with respect to the anti-roll tank control 
system that will be used in the ARRV. The basis for this exemption is 
section 1605(b)(2) of the Recovery Act, in that a ``passive-
controlled'' anti-roll tank control system of satisfactory quality is 
not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably 
available commercial quantities. The cost of the anti-roll tank control 
system (~$130,000) represents less than 0.1% of the total $148 million 
Recovery Act award provided toward construction of the ARRV.

 I. Background

    The Recovery Act appropriated $400 million to NSF for several 
projects being funded by the Foundation's Major Research Equipment and 
Facilities Construction (MREFC) account. The ARRV is one of NSF's MREFC 
projects. Section 1605(a) of the Recovery Act, the Buy American 
provision, states that none of the funds appropriated by the Act ``may 
be used for a project for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or 
repair of a public building or public work unless all of the iron, 
steel, and manufactured goods used in the project are produced in the 
United States.''
    The ARRV has been developed under a cooperative agreement awarded 
to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) that began in 2007. UAF 
executed the shipyard contract in December 2009 and the project is 
proceeding toward construction. The purpose of the Recovery Act is to 
stimulate economic recovery in part by funding current construction 
projects like the ARRV that are ``shovel ready'' without requiring 
projects to revise their standards and specifications, or to restart 
the bidding process again.
    Subsections 1605(b) and (c) of the Recovery Act authorize the head 
of a Federal department or agency to waive the Buy American provision 
if the head of the agency finds that: (1) Applying the provision would 
be inconsistent with the public interest; (2) the relevant goods are 
not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably 
available quantities and of a satisfactory quality; or (3) the 
inclusion of the goods produced in the United States will increase the 
cost of the project by more than 25 percent. If the head of the Federal 
department or agency waives the Buy American provision, then the head 
of the department or agency is required to publish a detailed 
justification in the Federal Register. Finally, section 1605(d) of the 
Recovery Act states that the Buy American provision must be applied in 
a manner consistent with the United States' obligations under 
international agreements.

 II. Finding That Relevant Goods Are Not Produced in the United States 
in Sufficient and Reasonably Available Quality

    Installation of an anti-roll tank system is included in the 
construction specifications to improve the ARRV's response to roll 
motion. Anti-roll tanks are a relatively simple and efficient way to 
improve the comfort and safety of personnel sailing aboard the ship. 
They consist of a tank filled with fluid (usually seawater) that is 
designed to slow the rate of water transfer from one side of the vessel 
to the other, trapping the larger amount of water on the higher side of 
the vessel. The water is trapped

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by either a series of baffles (internal vertical plates), air pressure 
across the top of the tank, or machinery (i.e. a pump). There are 
generally two types of systems, ``passive'' and ``active'' depending on 
the mechanism used to trap the water. ``Active'' generally refers to 
systems that use machinery such as pumps. These can be complex and 
require higher amounts of electrical power to operate. ``Passive'' 
systems generally use baffles and require no power or other control 
systems. Between the two is ``passive-controlled'' which uses cross-
over vent pipes fitted with valves that control the flow of air across 
the top of the tank. The air pressure at the top slows the transfer of 
water at the bottom.
    The ARRV will operate as a global class ship within the U.S. 
academic research vessel fleet. As such, it is expected to deploy 
worldwide where it will encounter a wide variety of sea conditions. 
Over the vessel's service life, the ARRV is likely to be deployed to 
Arctic and Antarctic waters, the north Pacific and north Atlantic where 
the average wave lengths and heights can be extreme as well as vary 
dramatically. Vessels working in these high latitudes are subject to 
demanding and often dangerous conditions due to low temperatures, high 
winds, and rough seas.
    The addition of the anti-roll tank was a high priority 
recommendation from the Final Design Review (FDR) held in October 2008. 
The review panel recognized the need for the vessel to periodically 
work well beyond the Arctic waters that the hull was initially 
optimized for. At that time, the design of the ARRV was fairly well 
advanced. Besides the addition of hull length to incorporate the tank 
structure itself, the type of anti-roll tank specified must meet the 
following technical requirements based on the status of the project:
     Ability to minimize ship's roll response in a wide variety 
of sea states (either ``Active'' or ``Passive-controlled'').
     Minimize impact on construction cost (low complexity, low 
additional power).
     Minimize operating cost (low complexity).
    Failure to meet any of these technical requirements would have 
severe negative consequences for the project with regard to 
nonperformance and significant added program cost. It would also result 
in a vessel that could not successfully support open water science 
equipment deployments over the anticipated operating range which 
includes the high polar regions (north and south), as well as the Gulf 
of Alaska, the north Pacific and the north Atlantic. The average wave 
lengths and heights encountered in these areas are widely different 
which means the vessel motions produced will be widely different.
    Following FDR, the project conducted a detailed anti-roll tank 
study to assess alternatives. A passive-controlled anti-roll tank 
system was determined to be the best option over a simpler passive 
system because of its ability to be ``tuned'' to a wide variety of sea 
conditions. Since the ARRV will operate as a global-ranging vessel with 
an emphasis on the high latitudes, an anti-roll tank that can respond 
to the widely varying sea states encountered is essential. Otherwise, 
vessel motions will not be adequately reduced to permit safe and 
effective science operations. All global research vessels are fitted 
with similar anti-roll tanks. In addition, the system has low power 
requirements and compared to a fully ``active'' system has a minimal 
design impact. In short, the passive-controlled system provides the 
best performance for the least impact on the existing design.
    Reducing the vessel's roll response decreases the number of days 
per year that the ship would have to halt science operations because of 
excessive ship's motion. At a certain point, the vessel motions become 
severe enough that the crew and science party are no longer effective 
due to seasickness or fatigue. Once this occurs, the ability to 
complete the science mission goes down dramatically either causing 
cancellation of science objectives or extension of the mission to fully 
complete the objectives. The chance of injuring personnel and/or 
damaging equipment also goes up dramatically. The daily rate for the 
ARRV is estimated at $45,000 per day in 2014 dollars. Given that the 
vessel will operate mainly in the high latitudes, losing 10% of the 
ship's schedule (30 days) annually due to weather would be likely if a 
technically compliant anti-roll tank were not fitted in the vessel. In 
as little as two years the lost science time to the agency could easily 
exceed the entire cost of the anti-roll tank addition (~$2.2 million).
    For the purposes of this exemption request, the ``anti-roll tank 
system'' includes only the manufactured goods that make up the control 
portion of the system; namely the control panel, control valves, safety 
valves, air filters, switches, accumulators, sensors, and spare parts. 
This request does not include the fabrication of the tanks and cross-
over piping which are part of the ship structure being fabricated by 
the shipyard (~$2.0 million) all of which will be U.S. steel and U.S. 
manufacture.
    The market research for this exemption was done by the shipyard in 
the summer of 2010 and verified by the UAF project team in September 
2010. As noted in UAF's request for this exemption, the shipyard 
performed market research by reviewing industry publications and the 
Internet in order to assess whether there exists a domestic capability 
to provide an anti-roll tank system that meets the necessary 
requirements for safe and successful operation in high latitudes and 
multiple ocean environments. Only three (3) potential suppliers were 
identified; two (2) were foreign-owned and the third was domestic. The 
shipyard compared the existing product lines for compliance with the 
anti-roll tank technical specifications and requirements as identified 
above. Following a presentation at the shipyard, it was determined that 
the one domestic supplier did not provide a system with the required 
passive-controlled capability. They supplied only a passive system 
which cannot be tuned to various sea conditions. Furthermore, although 
domestically-owned it was determined that the system from the single 
domestic supplier was not actually manufactured domestically. The 
result of the shipyard's independent market research is consistent with 
a determination made by the project team in early 2009 when conducting 
the anti-roll tank study.
    The project's conclusion is there are no US manufacturers who 
produce a suitable anti-roll system that meets all of the ARRV 
requirements so an exemption to the Buy American requirements is 
necessary.
    In the absence of a domestic supplier that could provide a 
requirements-compliant anti-roll tank system, UAF requested that NSF 
issue a Section 1605 exemption determination with respect to the 
purchase of a foreign-supplied, requirements-compliant anti-roll tank 
system, so that the vessel will meet the specific design and technical 
requirements which, as explained above, are necessary for this vessel 
to be able to perform its mission safely and successfully. Furthermore, 
the shipyard's market research as verified by UAF indicated that an 
anti-roll tank system compliant with the ARRV's technical 
specifications and requirements is commercially available from foreign 
vendors within their standard product lines.
    NSF's Division of Acquisition and Cooperative Support (DACS) and 
other NSF program staff reviewed the UAF exemption request submittal, 
found that

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it was complete, and determined that sufficient technical information 
was provided in order for NSF to evaluate the exemption request and to 
conclude that an exemption is needed and should be granted.

 III. Exemption

    On October 22, 2010, based on the finding that no domestically 
produced anti-roll tank system met all of the ARRV's technical 
specifications and requirements and pursuant to section 1605(b), the 
NSF Chief Financial Officer, in accordance with a delegation order from 
the Director of the agency, granted a limited project exemption of the 
Recovery Act's Buy American requirements with respect to the 
procurement of a passive-controlled anti-roll tank control system.

    Dated: December 23, 2010.
Lawrence Rudolph,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2010-33043 Filed 12-30-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P