May 29, 2014

ALEXANDER APPLAUDS RED TEAM PROCESS USED ON UPF

By ExchangeMonitor

The Red Team examining alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility hasn’t even delivered its report, but Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander wants the approach used on other Department of Energy projects. “Maybe it will turn out to be something we want. But I like the process,” Alexander said during an exchange with Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz at a Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee hearing yesterday. The Red Team, headed up by Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason, is expected to deliver its report next week, and it is widely expected to recommended a scaled back approach to maintaining the Y-12 National Security Complex’s uranium processing capabilities that is quicker and cheaper.

Alexander suggested that the Red Team approach, championed in years passed by the Office of Science, could be used on other major projects, like the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility and efforts to maintain Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium capabilities, as well as on the NNSA’s life extension programs. “I may see light at the end of the tunnel on this way for us to do a better job of these massive construction projects that are eating up billions of dollars,” Alexander said. He said he wanted to call a hearing on the Red Team’s findings after it delivers its report. “We’re glad the uranium facility will be creating so many good jobs in Tennessee in a safer working environment,” he said. “But Tennesseans pay taxes too. We want to get a handle on the cost of these big, complex projects.”

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