KNOXVILLE – If Honeywell is gunning for the contract to run the Pantex Plant when the National Nuclear Security Administration splits the landlord deals for that site and Y-12 in Oak Ridge, Tenn., next year, the company is treating its involvement like a state secret.
“I’ll answer the way that I would have answered that when I was in the military when I got asked questions about something intelligence-related,” DJ Johnson, vice president and general manager of Honeywell Federal Solutions, said here at the Energy, Technology and Environmental Business Association’s Business Opportunities and Technical Conference. “I can tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
Honeywell would be one in a long list of who’s who contractors vying for the contract, including Fluor, Bechtel and others.
CNS, a Bechtel National-led team, has managed Pantex and the Y-12 National Security Complex since 2014. The NNSA is splitting up management of the sites again and plans to award a standalone Pantex contract in 2024 and a standalone Y-12 contract in 2025.
Mike Robinson, vice president of project management at CNS said here this week that CNS is in full swing to transition management of Pantex to another firm if necessary.
“We’re currently going through site separation at Pantex, so that’s scheduled to get lined up, or there will be a different contractor notionally lined up and executing in FY 25 and beyond,” Robinson said at the conference. “Until then we are actively managing supporting site separation and actively planning the work that we have coming up.”
