The National Nuclear Security Administration announced yesterday the successful completion of its Facility and Infrastructure Recapitalization Program—a multi-year effort intended to help significantly reduce maintenance backlogs across the complex. The FIRP effort involved approximately 800 projects, including 625 projects to refurbish laboratory and production facilities and to repair or replace infrastructure; and another 145 projects to eliminate a total of 3.5 million square feet of excess footprint, according to NNSA. Other accomplishments of the program included eliminating $900 million worth of deferred maintenance, replacing 4.2 million square feet of failing roofs and completing nine utility line item projects at NNSA sites.
In a release yesterday, NNSA Associate Principal Deputy Administrator Michael Lempke said, “One of the primary goals of FIRP was to demonstrate NNSA’s commitment to being an effective steward of the taxpayers’ money while we move beyond the Cold War. The program was created to make our sites leaner, more energy efficient and to ensure the vitality and readiness of NNSA’s nuclear security enterprise. NNSA is proud of the professional staff dedicated to this major achievement. NNSA will continue to maintain the emphasis on core infrastructure that sustains all NNSA programs.”