Army Corps of Engineers Prepping for UPF Site Infrastructure and Services Work
NS&D Monitor
1/23/2015
The Army Corps of Engineers began gearing up for the next phase of the Uranium Processing Facility project this week, releasing a presolicitation notice this week for site infrastructure and services on the multi-billion-dollar effort. The work, which would be set aside for a service-disabled veteran-owned small business, includes design of a site layout play for trailers and laydown areas, demolition and removal of existing infrastructure, the excavation of a hill near Building 9107, site grading activities, the installation of storm water and sanitary sewer structures, and erosion and sediment control.
The government said it will use a best value trade-off source selection to award a firm-fixed price contract, likely between $5 and $10 million. A solicitation is expected to be released in mid-February, with a pre-proposal conference/site visit planned to occur 14 days after the release of the solicitation. Proposals will be due about 45 days after the release of the solicitation, the Corps said. The Corps is managing pre-construction work on the project for the National Nuclear Security Administration through an interagency agreement.
No Signs of When Y-12 Purification Facility Will Reopen
NS&D Monitor
1/23/2015
The shutdown of production of Fogbank is apparently ongoing as there are no signs of when the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Purification Facility will reopen. Steven Wyatt of the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office said the cause of a December spill at the Purification Facility is still under investigation, and he declined to speculate this week on when operations would resume.
The Purification Facility is known to produce Fogbank, a classified material that’s apparently an integral part in some of the two-stage thermonuclear weapons, including the W76 warhead. There has been no confirmation regarding whether the shutdown is impacting mission schedules at the Oak Ridge facility. Several days after the Dec. 16 spill of acetonitrile—a flammable solvent—occurred, a top contractor official at Y-12 indicated that restart of operations would likely take place in a matter of days. But that hasn’t occurred, and the NNSA hasn’t said why, at least not in any detail.
DNFSB Reveals New Details of Spill
Some additional information about the spill was revealed in a newly released memo by staff of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The memo said the acetonitrile spill was discovered “when multiple alarms activated in the facility’s control room and the PSS (Plant Shift Superintendent) office.” The spill area was about four feet in diameter, safety board document noted. The acetonitrile “appeared to have leaked from a vent hood in the vapor recovery system,” the safety board staff said.
Following the alarms on Dec. 16, workers evacuated the Purification Facility (Bldg. 9225-3), and employees in several nearby non-nuclear facilities were told to shelter in place, the safety board memo said. Officials have emphasized that no workers were harmed during the incident, which was declared an operational emergency. Response workers were allowed to return to the facility after it was determined that the solvent had dissipated.
Oak Ridge Security Contractor Gets 96 Grade for FY 2014
NS&D Monitor
1/23/2015
National Strategic Protective Services, the Department of Energy’s security contractor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, East Tennessee Technology Park and other Oak Ridge facilities, received a “very good” rating for Fiscal Year 2014 and an overall performance score of 96, according to information DOE released this week. The contractor earned $1.046 million for its work during the year, according to a DOE fee determination letter. NSPS is a joint venture of Triple Canopy Inc. and Securiguard that took over the Oak Ridge security contract previously held by Wackenhut in March 2013.
The DOE letter did not provide detail as to how the Department evaluates NSPS’ performance in FY 2014. According to the contractor, however, DOE said NSPS met or exceeded expectations and lauded the contractor’s ability to adapt to need as the protective force provider at multiple sites. “We are extremely pleased to have received another performance score of 96 for the second year in a row on this national, critical infrastructure contract,” NSPS President Mo Mulligan said in a statement. He also thanked the Oak Ridge community “for their unwavering support and for always making NSPS feel like an integral part of their family.”
