Mike Nartker
NS&D Monitor
7/11/2014
The National Nuclear Security Administration created a new position of Uranium Program Manager this week to oversee all efforts to maintain the agency’s uranium manufacturing capabilities. Tim Driscoll from NNSA’s Office of Defense Programs has been named to fill the new position, which “will be responsible for overseeing all program elements for maintaining NNSA’s uranium manufacturing capabilities in support of mission requirements,” an NNSA release states. “"Mr. Driscoll will be responsible for balancing resources among the challenges, and will create a cohesive, results-oriented uranium program for NNSA that will foster cross-communication of ideas and information,” NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said in the release.
According to the NNSA, the new position was created in response to one of the recommendations made by the Red Team created to analyze the Uranium Processing Facility project underway at the Y-12 site. The Red Team “recommended that NSNA create an overarching enriched uranium mission strategy based on people, plant, process, and materials that take into account both current and future program demands and the condition and predicted life of current facilities and processes,” this week’s NNSA release states.
Notably, though, the Red Team, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason, had recommended that a senior career executive in the Office of Defense Programs take over the UPF project as well as Y-12’s entire uranium processing mission. According to this week’s release, however, management of the UPF project will remain with the project’s Federal Project Director who will continue to report to NNSA’s Associate Administrator for Acquisition and Project Management, who is outside the Office of Defense Programs. “This organizational structure ensures the authority and responsibility for delivery the new build construction project on time and on budget is with APM,” the NNSA release says.
