Staff Reports
NS&D Monitor
09/18/2015
Y-12 Labor Agreement Extended Again
Amid a flurry of labor-related activities in Oak Ridge, Consolidated Nuclear Security has reached an agreement with the Atomic Trades and Labor Council to extend their existing collective bargaining agreement at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant for another 11 weeks.
The extension, which again postpones the start of negotiations on a new long-term contract for hourly workers at Y-12, gives CNS more time to try to settle the labor dispute at the Pantex Plant, where about 1,100 Metal Trades Council members went on strike Aug. 29. That has been no announcement on when the two parties will return to the bargaining table in Texas.
As part of the contract extension at Y-12, about 1,100 union workers will receive a one-time lump payment of $1,250 from CNS. That money is intended to compensate the Y-12 workers for lost wages that may have been incurred as a result of the repeated delays in negotiating a new, long-term labor contract.
CNS operates both Y-12 and Pantex under a management contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration that went into effect July 1, 2014.
The existing CNS contract with the Atomic Trades and Labor Council, which represents 13 unions at Y-12, was due to expire on Sept. 21. The latest of several extensions will go through Dec. 8. The Y-12 workers are scheduled to receive their lump-sum payments by Oct. 1.
ATLC President Steve Jones said if Consolidated Nuclear Security doesn’t resolve the contract situation at Pantex before Oct. 9, the company has the option to extend the Y-12 labor contract until Jan. 31, 2016. However, if the Pantex contract is settled, then the ATLC and CNS would start negotiations immediately on a new Y-12 labor agreement, he said.
Meanwhile, the ATLC was approached recently by UT-Battelle, the government’s managing contractor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, about starting negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement at that DOE facility. Preliminary discussions – on ground rules and other matters – are to take place this week. The ATLC represents about 700 hourly workers at ORNL.
It appears UT-Battelle is trying to take advantage of the lull in negotiations between CNS and ATLC to iron out an early contract with the labor unions at the lab. The existing labor contract between UT-Battelle and the ATLC isn’t due to expire until April 1, 2016. The ORNL contract covers wages and benefits for electricians, machinists, pipefitters, material clerks, janitors, and laborers.
Y-12 Purification Facility Procedures Updated after “Unexpected Reaction”
The Y-12 National Security Complex has put in place a “standing order” to alter procedures at the Purification Facility following an “unexpected reaction” last month at the plant, according to the Tennessee facility’s operations contractor.
Consolidated Nuclear Security spokeswoman Ellen Boatner confirmed the incident that took place in early August during startup of operations following maintenance at the facility, also known as Building 9225-3. Y-12 officials have acknowledged that the Purification Facility is used for production of Fogbank, a classified material in some thermonuclear weapons, such as the W76 (Trident) warhead.
“Because of unique system alignments during start up following maintenance, two operations being conducted at the same time used two procedures that caused an unexpected reaction from the wet chemistry equipment and vapor recovery system,” Boatner said in an email response to questions. The two procedures were reportedly incompatible and, based on the order, will not be done simultaneously in the future.
Staff members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board noted the incident in a recently released memo. The safety board report said the Y-12 contractor held a fact-finding session following the event.
According to Boatner, Y-12 took prompt action to “ensure the facility was in a safe condition.” She said there was never a risk to the workers or the public.
The high-security Purification Facility has drawn attention on multiple occasions. In December, the facility was evacuated because of a spill of acetonitrile, a highly flammable chemical. A false alarm prompted another brief evacuation in March of this year.
There was no relationship between the chemical spill in December and the more recent event, Boatner said. But she noted that lessons learned from the earlier event were at least partly responsible for the prompt response to the unexpected reaction on Aug. 4.
Efforts to Remove Enriched Uranium Deposits at Y-12 Ongoing
A spokeswoman at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant confirmed ongoing efforts to remove enriched uranium deposits from systems at Building 9206, but she declined to comment on how much of the special nuclear material has been removed or how much remains at the retired building.
“I can’t discuss that subject,” Ellen Boatner said in an email response to questions.
Building 9206 was once used for uranium recovery operations, similar to – but on a smaller scale – what takes place at 9212, the Oak Ridge, Tenn., plant’s hub for processing highly enriched uranium. However, Building 9206 hasn’t operated since 1994, and current and future operations will be geared toward minimizing the risks there, particularly those involving nuclear criticality safety issues.
Boatner, a spokeswoman for Y-12 contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security, said surveillance and maintenance activities are continuing at the facility, which is located inside the high-security Protected Area. She also said some “material removal” takes place on a daily basis.
“A deactivation plan for Building 9206 has been completed, and some initial deactivation activities have been scheduled,” Boatner said. The old facility will eventually be demolished, but there apparently is no specific schedule at this point for that to occur.
She said fiscal 2016 funding has been requested to stabilize conditions at the building by repairing or replacing the roof. As more money becomes available, Y-12 will give priority to higher-risk areas, she said.
Y-12 Protesters Resentenced, Not Going Back to Prison
The three Plowshares protesters who gained international attention when they broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex and splashed blood on the plant’s uranium storehouse won’t have to return to prison. But a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the three – including Sister Megan Rice, an 85-year-old Catholic nun – still must pay $52,953 in restitution costs for the damages incurred at Y-12, including overtime for extra guards following the worst security breach in the Oak Ridge, Tenn., plant’s history.
U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar also ordered the protesters, known collectively as the Transform Now Plowshares, to be on light probation – which he termed as “unsupervised supervision” — over the next two years with three conditions. One of those conditions is that they not enter any government nuclear institutions during the probationary period.
Rice, Michael Walli, and Greg Boertje-Obed were released from federal prison in May after the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned their conviction on sabotage charges — the most serious of the charges against them. Each had served sentences of roughly two years. Tuesday’s hearing was to resentence them on the other convictions for depredation of government property, but it was clear even beforehand that the three would be allowed to remain free because their time already served was more than the recommended sentencing on those counts. Thus, Tuesday’s hearing – held via teleconference – focused on probation and related issues.
Attorneys for the three argued against the restitution costs and wanted Judge Thapar to not impose any probation or restrictions.
After Thapar ruled that one condition for unsupervised probation would be not entering any government nuclear site, such as Y-12, the protesters asked if they could go into a plant if it was part of a public tour. In a lighthearted response, Thapar stipulated that they could do so only if the president of the United States approved such a visit, and he said the president was pretty busy and unlikely to give his nod to such a request. The federal judge said he had no problem, however, if they held signs outside a government facility or did other protest actions, as long as they didn’t break the law.
The other conditions of their release are that they not violate any local, state, or federal law, and that they report any arrests or violations of the law to their probation officer.
While Thapar ordered that they make restitution for the damages and costs, he acknowledged that Rice, Walli, and Boertje-Obed are indigent, don’t have assets, and probably won’t make any payments to the government.
In a statement, Boertje-Obed thanked the group’s defense attorneys for their work on the case. By winning their case before the federal appeals court to overturn the sabotage conviction and greatly shortening their sentences, they saved the taxpayers up to $150,000, he said.
Walli, as did the others, showed no remorse for their actions. “We acted at Y-12 to prevent a crime, not to perpetrate a crime,” he said.
Rice, who has become one of the most recognized figures in a global effort to get rid of nuclear weapons, said their anti-weapons work is about telling the truth. “It is surprising at this point,” she said, “that anyone could think that these weapons could provide security, since they are the antithesis of security.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Theodore said the three caused a “massive disruption” at Y-12 with their actions on July 28, 2012, and he argued for restitution and supervised release. He did not contest the fact that time served was enough to comply with federal sentencing guidelines on the depredation of government property conviction.
Theodore said it’s a concern to the government that the three are likely to commit similar acts in the future. “It’s fine for them to have that anti-weapons agenda, but when they do it through unlawful means” it’s wrong, no matter how well-intentioned their acts may be, he said.
