UPF PROJECT TEAM SCALING BACK WORKFORCE
NS&D Monitor
4/04/2014
As the Uranium Processing Facility project team scales down work in some design areas pending results of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s review of UPF alternatives, a spokeswoman confirmed that more than 100 members of the project team have been released over the past month. Ellen Boatner of B&W Y-12 said the size of the team had been reduced by about 11 percent, with some cuts having come from the B&W staff assigned to UPF, but most of them coming from the companies that comprised the four Basic Order Agreement teams that are carrying out the design tasks on the big project at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant.
Merrick & Company, working with URS, Ares Corp., and Innovative Design Inc, is heading up the Special Mechanical Design, including 3D mechanical equipment models and gloveboxes. Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. is handling Utility Design with URS, MS Technology Inc., Concentric Management Group Inc., American Defense Services, and LRS Federal. CH2M Hill Inc is heading the Architectural/Structural Tasks & Drafting Support group with MS Technology, Degenkolb Engineers, and Spectra Tech Inc., while URS is heading the Process and Instrumentation Design Support and 3D Mechanical Design group with Merrick, Jacobs, Navarro Research & Engineering Inc., MS Technology, and Tetra Tech Inc.
The personnel released from UPF returned to other assignments on other projects, Boatner said. The current employment on the UPF project is about 820, she said. “The Uranium Processing Facility project scope is being modified consistent with NNSA’s build-to-budget strategy in order to remain within the approved cost range,” Boatner said. “We are conserving our resources through a hiring freeze, by eliminating overtime and by releasing staff to their parent companies as we refine our path forward. These decisions were based on careful consideration of work that will contribute to an alternative building configuration. The bulk of those released to date were basic ordering agreements staff. BOAs are task-based contracts, which are structured precisely to facilitate this flexibility.”
