November 01, 2024

CNS submitted new rebaseline for UPF, project manager says

By Sarah Salem

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Consolidated Nuclear Security submitted a new rebaseline for the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the facility’s project manager said here.

The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) next-generation factory for nuclear-weapons secondary stages.

“There is a new rebaseline that’s been submitted by [Consolidated Nuclear Security], and we’re currently going through the approval process with NNSA on this new baseline,” Brian Zieroth, the project manager for the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) for Bechtel National, said in response to a question from the ExchangeMonitor.

Zieroth spoke at a panel at the Energy Technology and Environmental Business Association’s second day of the 25th annual Business Opportunities and Technical Conference in Knoxville, Tenn.

Zieroth said the most recent estimate was $10.3 billion for total cost, and he forecast completed construction by late 2027 with transition to operations in late 2031. This new estimate is different from the projection of $9.3 billion to complete construction by September 2030, as forecast by NNSA in March in its 2025 budget request.

“What I would say is a lot of those [factors] are consistent with challenges that you see in large mega projects, and unique amongst them being the impact of COVID,” Zieroth said. “But then as we talk about the health of the nuclear supply chain and the challenges that come with first-of-a-kind equipment, those are the type of factors that I would say led to the revised baseline for UPF.”

Nicole Nelson-Jean, associate administrator for Infrastructure at NNSA who also spoke on the panel, said UPF has run on schedule, “and I think actually ahead of schedule, ahead of schedule and budget,” for the past 11 months.

At a reception in Washington in late September, Gene Sievers, site manager at Y-12, similarly said UPF construction was ahead of its newest schedule.