Although the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to replace Consolidated Nuclear Security as the manager of the Y-12 National Security Site in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas, the incumbent will stay on at Y-12 to continue building the new factory for nuclear-weapon secondary stages.
“The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) project will continue to be completed by Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC,” the NNSA stated in a draft request for proposals for the next Y-12 and Pantex site-management contract.
The NNSA expects to finish building the UPF by 2025, at a cost of no more than $6.5 billion.
The NNSA announced in June that it would part ways with Bechtel National-led Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS), seven years into the company’s 10-year contract. The deal now will expire Sept. 30, 2021. Bechtel is also prime for the Uranium Processing Facility construction.
Consolidated Nuclear Security will leave three years’ worth of options on the table, under the contract worth roughly $2 billion annually. The contractor fell well short of the 80% at-risk fee it needed to earn for fiscal 2019 to trigger the next two-year option on the pact, earning only about 70%, or some $28 million, according to its latest performance evaluation. Management and safety lapses figured into the decision, including time-card mismanagement that the contractor self-reported to the government.
