WASHINGTON — The National Nuclear Security Administration will extend the Bechtel National-led prime contractor at Y-12 National Security Complex that builds nuclear weapon secondary stages in Tennessee through September 2027, the head of the agency said here Thursday.

The agency also plans to extend Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies at the Kansas City National Security Campus, where non-nuclear parts of nuclear weapons are built, and another Bechtel-led contract at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

The details of the Kansas City and Livermore extensions are yet to be decided, Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said here in a keynote speech at the Exchange Monitor’s annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit.

Meanwhile, Hruby said in response to a question from a summit attendee, the NNSA probably will not turn over the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, over to a new management and operations contractor until November, about a month later than planned.

Consolidated Nuclear Security has managed both Pantex and Y-12 under a single contract since 2014. After a competition for a follow-on combined-site contract fell through in 2022, the NNSA decided to split management of Y-12 and Pantex again.

There are at least four teams competing for the standalone Pantex contract.

Finally, the NNSA “this spring” plans to begin competition for the next management and operations contract at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., which the nuclear weapons agency is taking over in 2025 from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. 

That should allow the NNSA to turn the reins over to its preferred contractor from Fluor-led incumbent Savannah River Nuclear Solutions in October 2026, when that company’s contract is up, Hruby said.