The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Friday formalized its decision to continue building the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., even as the agency complies with a federal court order to conduct an additional environmental review of the plant.
The Department of Energy branch made the move official in an amended record of decision published Friday in the Federal Register, but dated Sept. 27. That was just three days after the U.S. District Court for Eastern Tennessee ordered the semiautonomous nuclear-weapon agency to update the Uranium Processing Facility’s (UPF) environmental-compliance paperwork to include federal data on earthquake hazards that were not available when the agency decided to build the plant in 2011.
Only a day after Judge Pamela Reeves handed down her decision in a 2016 lawsuit against the agency, the NNSA told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing that UPF construction would continue. The amended record of decision reveals the legal maneuvers the agency has taken to keep subcontractor Bechtel National on the job during the court-mandated redo of the UPF’s environmental review.
“NNSA has decided to continue to operate Y–12 to meet the stockpile stewardship mission critical activities assigned to the site on an interim basis, pending further review of seismic risks at Y–12,” the agency stated. “Such continued operations are consistent with the court’s ruling and will continue to implement safety improvements under previously approved contracts.”
The NNSA did not say how long it might take to finish the additional review of regional earthquake hazards.
“Once further seismic analysis has been performed, NNSA will issue a new ROD describing, what, if any, changes it has decided to make in light of that analysis,” according to the amended record of decision.
Three citizen-run environmentalist groups sued the NNSA in 2016 in the U.S. District Court, complaining the agency flouted federal environmental law because it did not completely redo the UPF’s 2011 environmental impact statement after deciding in 2016 to build the planned processing hub in three small buildings instead of one large building.
