HEAD OF NEW NNSA PRODUCTION OFFICE DISCUSSES PLANS FOR MANAGEMENT OF Y-12/PANTEX

By ExchangeMonitor

While the federal workforce at the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Pantex Plant is expected to shrink as part of the consolidation of the management and operating contracts at the sites, don’t expect it to happen quickly. Pantex Site Office Manager Steve Erhart, who has been tapped to head up the new Nuclear Security Production Office, told NW&M Monitor that the initial focus of the office will be to support the consolidated M&O contract when transition begins. NNSA officials have said they’re hoping to have a new contractor in place by the start of 2013, and only after that happens would federal restructuring happen in earnest, Erhart said. “The feds provide the stability in contract changeovers. I don’t want to do a lot of consolidation and have a bunch of changes to the federal structure” at first, said Erhart, who has begun establishing the management structure of the new site office while continuing to head up the Pantex Site Office. “We want to minimize those changes but be in a position to facilitate the transition.”

The NNSA hasn’t decided where the new office will be located, and Erhart suggested that isn’t likely to be decided any time soon, either. “I don’t think there’s a big rush right now to get that settled and I really don’t personally think there’s a need for that,” he said. “As long as I have access to the folks I need to talk with to get all of this work done, I can do it from right where I’m sitting, which is what I’m doing.” He cautioned against reading into the decision to name him the head of the new office and draw conclusions that the office would be headquartered in Amarillo, and stressed that it would be important to maintain a federal presence at each site. “As a manager, I want access to both sites. I think managing requires you to have the ability to be at either site when I need to be,” Erhart said. “I prefer being near one of them if that’s a possibility but that’s a preference. I’ve seen it done a bunch of different ways. We could create a town called ‘Oakarillo’ or something and put me right between them but I don’t know if that’s in the cards. There are a lot of considerations and the discussions aren’t to a point where I’m convinced that we’re getting close to even deciding that.”

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