Roger Snodgrass
For NS&D Monitor
5/9/2014
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—New National Security Administration chief Frank Klotz said a recent suggestion by a Uranium Processing Facility Red Team that the agency scale back its plans to modernize its uranium processing activities at the Y-12 National Security Complex is “an approach we ought to consider,” but he was less enthusiastic about one of the report’s central recommendations on the management of major construction projects. The Red Team, chaired by Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason, suggests that the federal management structure of major NNSA projects has created confusion about requirements, with the Office of Defense Programs and Office of Acquisition and Project Management often at odds with each other over requirements.
APM currently runs the Uranium Processing Facility project while Defense Programs is ultimately in charge of its budget. Speaking May 8 at Sandia National Laboratories after a tour of lab facilities, Klotz went out of his way to praise the Office of Acquisition and Project Management. “If you read the report carefully,” Klotz said, “I think what they would argue is that those that have overall responsibility for the uranium mission ought to have a major say in how things are done. I for one am very impressed with the success so far of the Office of Acquisition and Project management. I think they have already demonstrated a number of different areas by bringing a professional expertise in managing large capital construction projects—a track record so far which argues for continuing to build upon that capability.”
‘You Can’t Turn the Titanic on a Dime’
Confirmed by the Senate last month, Klotz made his first visit to several weapons complex sites this week in his capacity as administrator, touring the Nevada National Security Site, Sandia National Laboratories, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. As administrator, he faces a daunting task of restoring the NNSA’s credibility among Congress, the Pentagon and other stakeholders while addressing continuing problems with security, safety and cost overruns on major projects. “I’m personally optimistic,” Klotz said. “It is a journey and journey takes time. You can’t turn the Titanic on a dime. What it takes is to come in every day and make sure we make continuous improvement. That’s what I’m committed to do. That’s what the laboratory and the plant directors are committed to do and the entire NNSA workforce are committed to do.”
Flanked by the directors of the three national nuclear weapons design laboratories at Sandia, he said it was a priority to strengthen the strategic partnership between the labs and headquarters. “We are united in our commitment to make sure that our science and engineering excellence, the nation’s science and engineering excellence, whether it be for nuclear weapons or for nonproliferation and counterterrorism or any of the other national security missions, which are done here or elsewhere continues to be vibrant, continues to be vital, continues to be relevant,” he said.
Klotz Outlines Concerns
He said his main concern was the disparity between the projects that are needed to be done and the resources needed to do them. “We have several major weapons systems that need to go through what we call life extension programs in order to make sure they remain safe, secure and effective,” he said. “We have more weapons that are going into life extension programs over the next 10 to 20 years than we have had at any point in our history. At the same time, we have these major capital building reconstruction projects.”
Among several large construction projects that have faltered under a combination of budget constraints and cost overruns is UPF, which was designed to provide a modernized building for Y-12’s uranium processing work. In recent years, however, it’s become apparent that UPF as envisioned would be too expensive to build, and the NNSA tasked Mason and the Red Team to examine alternatives to the project. The Red Team recommended an approach similar to the strategy that emerged in the wake of the deferral of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility based on smaller buildings and the utilization of existing facilities.
Red Team Recommendations Under Consideration
That way, as Klotz explained the financial rationale, the planning could ensure that structures that don’t demand the same level of safety and security wouldn’t have to cost as much because they don’t demand the same level of security or safety as higher hazard buildings. “That’s the approach that the Red Team has suggested. It is an approach that we are discussing among ourselves as we meet here,” Klotz said, “and it is an approach that is being most carefully considered and vetted by NNSA staff back in Washington. When I get back on Monday I expect we will have a long discussion on what they have been doing this week on that.”
He acknowledged that costs have soared over time. “Part of the reason is that we’re building one-of-a-kind structures to do a very unique operation, and it’s not quite as simple as going out and building a building for retail or other types of manufacturing capability,” he said. The Red Team evaluations “took a page out of a book that was written at Los Alamos,” after CMRR-NF was put on hold, he noted.
Lab Directors: Innovation Needed for New Infrastructure Approaches
The NNSA administrator and lab directors’ colloquy this week was timed to coincide with a project milestone at Sandia, where officials observed the completion of the renovation of several large-scale test facilities. The final phase of the Test Capabilities Revitalization project included rebuilding a 10,000-foot Rocket Sled Track, and renovating Mechanical Shock, Centrifuge and other facilities. Klotz and SNL Director Paul Hommert took advantage of the opportunity to emphasize that the project was brought in some $4 million under budget.
Asked if they thought large scale construction projects in the nuclear enterprise needed major management makeovers, Los Alamos Director Charles McMillan and Lawrence Livermore Director William Goldstein agreed with Hommert that their current organizational capabilities were a necessary foundation for improvements. “We’re very satisfied with this project we’re recognizing here today,” Hommert said. “The life extension efforts, we have referred to—I have great confidence in our collective ability to deliver on those.” At the same time, he said the massive infrastructure programs, given their complexity and fiscal constraints “require that we look at every avenue to see how we can bring the most innovation to those projects.”
