An excavation contractor working on site preparations for the Uranium Processing Facility in late January accidentally demolished a storm drain line on the west side of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee, resulting in some activities at the construction site being put on hold for a month or more, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report and information provided by the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Steven Wyatt, a spokesman at the NNSA’s Production Office, said the site work was being done by Emerald-A&H Joint Venture. Emerald was working under a subcontract to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is supervising site preparations for UPF under a federal interagency agreement with the NNSA.
Wyatt said the contract required Emerald-A&H to absorb the costs for reconnecting the demolished draining pipe. “Therefore, there was no cost to the U.S. government,” he said in an email response to questions.
Details of the damage incurred have not been revealed, but a weekly activities report by DNFSB staff recently released said the destruction a 36-inch storm drain occurred while the contractor was installing a new 48-inch storm drain line to prepare for construction of the multibillion-dollar UPF complex at Y-12. According to Wyatt, the 36-inch storm drain was reconnected on March 18, resolving the issue.
Wyatt said work was suspended “in the immediate area of the initial interference” from Feb. 7 to March 18.
