Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
2/2/2015
The Obama Administration is requesting $430 million for the Uranium Processing Facility planned for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Fiscal Year 2016, preserving the planned funding profile of the multi-billion-dollar facility thanks to a decision last year to shift the project from one “big box” facility to several smaller buildings. During a call with reporters today on the National Nuclear Security Administration’sFY16 budget request, NNSA Associate Administrator for Acquisition and Project Management Bob Raines said the $430 million request “mirrored” the funding profile established last year for the project. That includes a planned increase to $500 million in FY 2017, $515 million in FY 2018 and $520 million in FY 2019. “Going from the ‘big box’—which the Department said would have been more expensive than we had planned to spend—to multiple facilities allows us to reduce the cost thereby keeping that original funding profile that we identified in the ‘16 budget the same as we had in the ‘15 budget,” Raines said.
A Red Team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason last year recommended a shift in approach away from a “big box” strategy and toward a more scaled back plan that would rely on some existing facilities and a set of new buildings rather than one massive structure. The current plan is to build the facility within its original $6.5 billion baseline and have it up and running by 2025. In total, the facility will be about 500,000 square feet, according to project officials. That is a decrease from the 600,000 square foot “big box” version of the facility. “The strategy provides a more consistent annual funding profile for Enriched Uranium (EU) investments, balanced between the delivery of new build facilities and reduction of risk in ongoing operations,” the Administration said in budget documents released today.
Budget Hints at Significant Risks
The risks, however, are significant, the budget documents reveal. “There is substantial risk that the existing facilities will continue to deteriorate to the point of significant impact to Defense Programs, Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, and Naval Reactors programs,” the Administration said, noting that it could impact life extension programs as well as the Navy and the NNSA’s nonproliferation program. “The risk of inadvertent or accidental shutdown of the existing facilities is high and may occur prior to completion and startup of the UPF Project,” the Administration added.
The new approach is also expected to facilitate significant cost savings and efficiencies over the previous strategy. The standalone Mechanical/Electrical Building and a Salvage and Accountability Building were previously part of the large facility, which had to be designed to the highest safety and security requirements. Now, only the Main Process Building will be built to those standards. Project officials also expect the approach to be more efficient during construction, allowing work on multiple buildings in parallel.
Project Details
Work on the Main Process Building is slated to begin in Fiscal Year 2018 and be wrapped up by the end of FY 2022, project officials said in November. The Mechanical/Electrical Building (MEB) and Salvage and Accountability Building (SAB) will start sooner, with construction expected to begin on the MEB in FY 2017 and construction to start on the SAB in FY 2018. Site preparation work, like rerouting Bear Creek Road and building a haul road, are currently under way at the site, and the Army Corps of Engineers has started looking for a contractor to do other preparation work at the site, including the demolition of some existing facilities.
In the budget documents, the Administration said the project will be completed using several acquisition strategies, including firm fixed price, design bid build, design build and cost plus design build contracts. “The Nuclear Facilities subproject is currently being assessed for best value acquisition strategies,” the Administration said.
