Y-12

The Energy Department could issue its final request for proposals in late February for construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., according to recently released presolicitation documents. The agency expects prospective bidders will have 30 calendar days from the date of the final RFP […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration wants to ship some 3 pounds of weapon-grade uranium abroad for eventual conversion into medical isotopes in four European countries, according to a license application the semiautonomous Energy Department stockpile agency filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week. The unalloyed metal covered by the application is a roughly 93-percent […]

Peggy McCullough, who Bechtel announced Friday would be leaving her post as project director at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, will be replacing John Howanitz as head of the company’s Nuclear Security, and Operations business based in Virginia. Bechtel said Friday that Brian Reilly, who like McCullough […]

In a sign it still plans to install power lines on a hilltop the local government would rather stay bare, the National Nuclear Security Administration has asked the City of Oak Ridge to pick, by Dec. 13, the color the agency should use to camouflage the line poles. That is according to a late-Friday press […]

The city of Oak Ridge, Tenn., this week asked the Department of Energy again not to despoil the natural landscape near the Y-12 National Nuclear Security Complex with power lines for a next-generation uranium-processing plant. The Department of Energy (DOE) contracted with the Tennessee Valley Authority to build the lines on a hilltop known locally […]

The Uranium Processing Facility in Tennessee, a centrifuge in Texas, and the national heavy water inventory are among the management challenges the Department of Energy’s Inspector General’s Office foresees for the agency in fiscal 2018, according to a Nov. 27 special report. The Inspector General’s (IG) Office fretted that DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) […]

Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Orbital ATK’s [OA] stockholders on Wednesday voted in favor of their company’s being acquired by Northrop Grumman [NOC], keeping the pending deal on track for a close in the first half of 2018. The nearly $8 billion acquisition still must receive regulatory approvals. Orbital ATK said that holders of more than 99 percent […]

The Energy Department says it is too early to estimate the total cost for the Mercury Treatment Facility that will be built at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., given that there are has multiple procurements going in connection with the project. A DOE spokesman said Nov. 22 that the department should […]

A new Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., took a step closer to becoming reality Monday as U.S. lawmakers and Energy Department officials participated in a groundbreaking ceremony. The facility is considered necessary for further cleanup at the DOE nuclear-weapon site, because once some of the old buildings […]

Construction of the Mercury Treatment Facility at the Department of Energy’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee will ceremonially begin Monday with assistance from two U.S. lawmakers. Scheduled to attend the 10 a.m. Nov. 20 groundbreaking ceremony are Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.). The Energy […]

If it holds up under protest, the $4.7 billion contract for liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina will provide BWX Technologies with one of its bigger wins as a prime contractor in recent years, executives said during a quarterly call on Tuesday. But management said it would […]

Jay Mullis, the acting manager of the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) in Tennessee since October 2016, is now the permanent manager. A 30-year federal employee, Mullis had since February 2015 been deputy manager for the DOE office that oversees cleanup of former uranium enrichment activities at the Oak Ridge Reservation. […]

Anti-nuke groups suing to halt construction of a crucial defense uranium facility in Tennessee told a federal judge their lawsuit against the Department of Energy should be heard in Washington, D.C., and not in Tennessee, as the agency wishes. In a court filing last week, the plaintiffs said they opposed the DOE motion to move […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) this week announced back-to-back milestones on warhead refurbishments intended to preserve the potency of U.S. nuclear submarine and cruise missiles. On Tuesday, the NNSA said it modified the first W80-1 air-launched cruise-missile warhead under a program launched in 2012 to help keep the weapon suitable for service into the […]

Anti-nuke groups suing to halt construction of a crucial defense uranium facility in Tennessee told a federal judge their lawsuit against the Department of Energy should be heard in Washington, D.C., and not in Tennessee, as the agency wishes. In a court filing last week, the plaintiffs said they opposed the DOE motion to move […]

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) took the head of the House Armed Services Committee along on a tour of the Y-12 National Security Complex and its Uranium Processing Facility last week. Fleischmann’s office said in a Friday press release that the Tennessee congressman was “thrilled” HASC Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) could join him for the […]

The Energy Department wants to move a lawsuit filed by environmental and anti-nuclear groups that aim to halt construction of new uranium enrichment facilities to a federal court in Tennessee, according to court papers filed last week. DOE wants the lawsuit over the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee moved […]

The Energy Department wants to move a lawsuit filed by environmental and anti-nuclear groups that want to halt construction of new uranium enrichment facilities to a federal court in Tennessee, according to court papers filed last week. DOE wants the lawsuit over the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee […]

Calvin Biesecker Defense Daily Northrop Grumman late Tuesday afternoon announced a number of forthcoming leadership changes, including the elevation of Kathy Warden to the position of president. Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman’s chairman and CEO, is also president. Warden, who is currently in charge of the company’s Mission Systems Sector, will become president and chief operating […]

URS-CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the cleanup prime for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, has awarded a $1.4 million contract to GEM Technologies to begin preparing the site of a new mercury treatment facility at Y-12 National Complex. By the end of November, GEM will begin demolishing old Oak Ridge electric cables […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to publish a master schedule for overhauling elements of its uranium program no sooner than Dec. 31, 2018, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. A cornerstone of that overhaul is the Uranium Production Facility (UPF) to be built at the Y-12 National Security Complex near Oak Ridge, […]

Congress this week passed a temporary spending bill that will keep the Department of Energy funded at 2017 levels for at least more than two months into the new fiscal year, setting up another holiday-season budget showdown on Capitol Hill. The House on Friday voted in favor of a Senate-approved plan of disaster relief and debt-ceiling […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) is investigating unauthorized access to confidential information at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the internal DOE enforcement agent wrote in a letter to Y-12 prime contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS). The breach was identified on March 16, 2017, and CNS on July 27 reported […]

A trio of nuclear watchdogs on Thursday filed suit in federal court to force the Department of Energy to conduct a new environmental evaluation before building the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claims the National Environmental […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2018 energy and water appropriations bill calls on the National Nuclear Security Administration to address lingering cost and schedule concerns in its modernization and infrastructure programs as it boosts agency funding by nearly $1 billion. The legislation, which on Wednesday passed the chamber’s Appropriations Committee and will next be considered […]

A June 26 letter from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has provided new insight into safety design features for the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Uranium Processing Facility. Details regarding progress of the Tennessee facility have been something of a secret since the project was significantly reconfigured in 2014 to encompass a mix of new […]

Two aging buildings at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee are undergoing electrical modernization upgrades under the facilities’ Extended Life Program (ELP), according to the National Nuclear Security Administration. The NNSA last December received an ELP implementation plan from site contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security for extending the lives of Buildings 9215 and 9204-2E, decades-old enriched uranium […]

Two aging buildings at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee are undergoing electrical modernization upgrades under the facilities’ Extended Life Program (ELP), according to the National Nuclear Security Administration. The NNSA last December received an ELP implementation plan from site contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security for extending the lives of Buildings 9215 and 9204-2E, two decades-old enriched […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry this week reaffirmed his department’s commitment to sticking within the cost and schedule guidelines for construction of the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) in Tennessee, given stable funding. Perry, who was on Capitol Hill repeatedly for a series of hearings on the Energy Department’s fiscal 2018 budget plan, confirmed DOE would build […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Science office in Oak Ridge will extend for 10 years its contract with the city of Oak Ridge for a potable water supply for the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The contract modification extends the period of performance from completion this June 30 to June […]