Latest in a Series of Assessments Raising Culture, Morale, Concerns Within Board
Mike Nartker
NS&D Monitor
2/6/2015
A “divisive and dysfunctional relationship” among the members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board appears to be playing…
Early delivery of equipment for a Savannah River Site (SRS) training facility is helping accelerate preparations for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plutonium pit production mission, the agency said in a press release.
NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator Scott Pappano visited SRS in September to review construction of the High-Fidelity Training and Operations Center (HFTOC), a non-nuclear facility to train workers for pit production operations. Pappano attended a Sept. 16 ribbon-cutting marking delivery of the first operations equipment for the facility and said construction was progressing along multiple tracks, including concrete placement, structural steel installation and production-equipment installation, the release said.
The HFTOC is a subproject of the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF), which is part of NNSA’s two-site strategy to produce at least 80 plutonium pits annually at Savannah River and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The facility is scheduled for completion in 2028, and had its Critical Decision 2/3 approved, meaning it can proceed with full construction, in March.
The goal of the facility is to “mimic capabilities” of the Main Processing Building so operators can use “like-for-like” sets and surrogate materials to develop pit production competencies while the main building is still in development.
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the site’s management and operations contractor, is using commercial construction practices for the non-nuclear project.
The approach has already produced schedule gains, the release said. The project team modified its design to obtain a long-lead electrical transformer from existing commercial inventory, securing it more than a year earlier than expected.
The first HFTOC operations equipment also arrived significantly ahead of its original fabrication schedule. The equipment was initially estimated to require 23 months to manufacture, but expanded use of commercial manufacturers reduced that time to 11 months, allowing delivery two months ahead of the project’s baseline date.
Construction began in early 2026. More than 3,000 cubic yards of concrete, 14,800 linear feet of conduit and piping, and more than 430 tons of rebar and structural steel have been installed, according to SRS.
