Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
8/22/2014
LA VISTA, Neb.—After establishing a program manager for uranium production, National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz said the agency is strengthening—and in some cases creating—program manager positions for all of its life extension programs as well as its plutonium and tritium work. Speaking at U.S. Strategic Command’s Deterrence Symposium in La Vista, Neb., last week, Klotz said the positions would be strengthened to serve as a “single point of contact” for its various life extension programs and nuclear materials work with the goal of helping improve the agency’s project management record. “Borrowing somewhat from my experience in DoD where program managers have a pretty significant role in managing a host of issues associated with requirements and budget, what I would like to do is invest our program managers with more authority to bring together the various parts of NNSA that deal with their particular program and be the single point of contact, the sort of 1-800 number as you will for either LEPs or these large commodities,” Klotz said.
The Red Team tasked with examining alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility recommended creating a uranium program manager, and the NNSA named Tim Driscoll to the position in early July. NNSA spokesman Steven Wyatt said Rob McKay is the current program manager for the B61-12, Keith Smithson is the program manager for the W76-1, and Jay Pape is the program manager for the W88 ALT 370. Those positions would be strengthened, Klotz said, with the officials likely remaining in place, and program manager slots for plutonium and tritium would be created.
Klotz said field and headquarters offices would still tie to various programs, but the program manager would be held accountable and responsible for the programs, reporting to Klotz through the NNSA’s Office of Defense Programs. “One of the criticisms that has been made of NNSA and its governance of the nuclear security enterprise is there are too many people who can say no and not a single person who can say yes,” Klotz said, adding: “What I anticipate is people who are leading those efforts in the past will continue to do that … but they will be vested with more responsibility, more accountability for that role.”
‘We’re Working Hard to Fix Those Things We Can’
In his speech at the symposium, Klotz acknowledged the problems the NNSA has had controlling the costs of its major projects and life extension programs. In addition to rising costs on the Uranium Processing Facility, which led to the Red Team review and a scaled back approach, rising costs also led the agency to defer work on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility planned for Los Alamos National Laboratory and pivot to a smaller, less expensive approach. Costs on life extension programs have also risen dramatically in recent years, with the B61 refurbishment expected to cost $8.2 billion and estimates for the deferred-for-five-years first interoperable warhead exceeding $12 billion. “I would be less than candid if I did not admit that NNSA has struggled in recent years on particular programs to meet all the expectations of our DoD partners,” Klotz said. “Some of the underlying reasons were within NNSA’s ability to control and some, such as a stable funding environment, were not. We’re working hard to fix those things we can.”
Klotz noted that in addition to strengthening the role of program managers, the agency was in the process of establishing an office for cost estimating modeled after the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation group and stood up the Office of Acquisition and Project Management in 2011. “These improvements will take time to implement but they represent in my view a big step forward in improving how we do business,” he said.
