The Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) is investigating unauthorized access to confidential information at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the internal DOE enforcement agent wrote in a letter to Y-12 prime contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS).
The breach was identified on March 16, 2017, and CNS on July 27 reported to DOE that the matter had been closed, according to an Aug. 9 notice of investigation letter from Steven Simonson, director of EA’s Office of Enforcement, to CNS President and CEO Morgan Smith.
The letter did not described the breach, except to say it involved “the improper shipment, storage and unauthorized access to classified information.”
CNS is a team led by Bechtel National with Leidos, Orbital ATK, and SOC, with Booz Allen Hamilton as a subcontractor.
“On Wednesday, August 9, Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC received the Office of Enterprise Assessments’ Office of Enforcement notification of intent to conduct an investigation of noncompliances associated with records handling at the Y-12 National Security Complex,” CNS spokeswoman Ellen Boatner wrote in an email Tuesday. “Y-12 personnel are supporting EA investigators to provide any necessary materials or information.”
Consolidated Nuclear Security manages and operates Y-12 under a cost-plus-fees contract awarded in 2013 and worth nearly $1.8 billion over 10 years, including options. The facility manufactures nuclear weapons, stores nuclear materials, and fuels nuclear reactors for the Navy, among other operations. The contractor stands to earn some $380 million in fees over the pact’s five-year base period, which runs through April 30, 2018. The contract also includes management and operations of the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and construction of the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12.
