The separation of the Pantex Plant in Texas and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee took a baby step forward this week with the opening of separate federal field offices for the nuclear-weapons production sites.
Consolidated Nuclear Security, still the joint operations contractor for the two sites, announced the split on Tuesday in a pair of press releases. The new National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Y‑12 Field Office and Pantex Field Office replace the old joint NNSA Production Office.
Teresa Robbins is the manager of the Y-12 field office. She previously led the joint office. Jason Armstrong is the manager of the Pantex Field Office, a position roughly analogous to his old role as the Production Office’s Pantex manager. The field offices are where the NNSA’s senior-most on-site federal employees work. These offices are small compared with the neighboring contractor workforces that number in the thousands.
NNSA is splitting up Y-12 and Pantex after nearly a decade of joint administration by the Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS). There are at least four teams competing for the standalone Pantex contract, which the NNSA planned to award in the second half of this year.
In February, NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby said the transition to a new Pantex contractor would be complete by November; the agency planned to extend CNS at the Texas site for a few months.
Hruby also said that CNS would be kept on at Y-12 through 2027, two years longer than the team has left on its deal today. CNS’ contract at Pantex currently runs through Sept. 30 and through Sept. 30, 2025 at Y-12, where it has a pair of one-year options left.
