Y-12 Contractor Adjusts Some UPF Design Contracts
NS&D Monitor
3/13/2015
As the design work on the Uranium Processing Facility transitions to management under Bechtel National via a subcontract with Consolidated Nuclear Security, there have been changes in the workload of the teams participating in the project’s four Basic Ordering Agreements, with some of the companies having their roles reduced significantly.
Richard Brown, the UPF procurement chief, said all four BOAs—for design of the multi-billion-dollar project—have been retained and assigned to Bechtel for administration. He said Merrick & Company’s contract for glovebox design remains unchanged, while the BOAs with Jacobs, CH2M Hill and AECOM (formerly URS) were modified to implement an integrated team approach. “This modification is a work process improvement, resulting in more efficient and effective implementation of new tasks, which eliminates some duplicity in support,” Brown said. “The BOAs continue to be a big part of the project engineering execution team.”
Merrick & Company heads the Special Mechanical Design, including 3D mechanical equipment models and gloveboxes. Working with Merrick are URS Energy & Construction; Ares Corp.; and Innovative Design Inc. Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. leads the Utility Design, which also includes URS; MS Technology Inc.; Concentric Management Group Inc.; American Defense Services; and LRS Federal.
CH2M Hill Inc. heads the Architectural/Structural Tasks & Drafting Support group. Others working for them include MS Technology; Degenkolb Engineers; and Spectra Tech Inc. AECOM heads the Process and Instrumentation Design Support and 3D Mechanical Design group, with support from Merrick; Jacobs; Navarro Research & Engineering Inc.; MS Technology; and Tetra Tech Inc.
Activists Convicted in Y-12 Break-in Push for Charges to be Dropped at Appeal Hearing
NS&D Monitor
3/13/2015
Attorneys for the three activists who broke into Y-12 on July 28, 2012, in the most publicized security breach in the history of the nuclear weapons complex argued that their conviction on sabotage charges should be dropped in an appearance this week before appellate judges at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. Jeff Theodore, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case in Federal Court in Knoxville in May 2013, represented the government and pushed for the convictions to be upheld at the March 12 hearing.
Each side had about 15 minutes to argue their cases before the appeals judges. The three protesters—Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed—remain incarcerated in federal prisons in New York, Pennsylvania and Kansas.
The activists openly admitted they broke into Y-12 and cut through four fences in order to reach the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, where they splashed blood, spray-painted messages and chipped at one of the building columns with a small hammer. However, their attorneys have argued that these were symbolic gestures and in no way should the acts be equated to charges of sabotage. Among the issues is whether or not the actions of the three—including an 82-year-old Catholic nun—actually harmed the national defense.
Man Detained After Attempting to Enter Y-12, Later Arrested
NS&D Monitor
3/13/2015
A 24-year-old California man was detained and interviewed by FBI agents and representatives from the Department of Energy’s Inspector General Office on March 6 after he reportedly attempted to enter a back door at Y-12’s New Hope Center and later showed up at the east security portal for Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Rishi Chatterjee Malakar of Fremont, Calif., was subsequently arrested on a charge of driving on a revoked or suspended driver’s license and was held in the Anderson County jail.
According to a report by police, Malakar was confronted by an employee at New Hope Center and refused a tour of the Y-12 facility. The report indicated he later demanded a tour of ORNL when stopped at the security portal there. After being released from jail on March 10, Malakar was arrested again the next day on the same charge of driving on a suspended license. He was transported again to the Anderson County Jail.
Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nuclear weapons complex, declined to comment on the incident. Security at the Oak Ridge plant has been under scrutiny ever since mid-2012, when three Plowshares protesters broke into the nuclear defense facility and reached the Protected Area.
