Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
1/8/2016
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) touted its progress on infrastructure modernization projects, international nonproliferation activities, and other technical and administrative work in a report released last week on the agency’s major achievements during 2015.
The agency highlighted its completion of the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) site readiness subproject at the Y-12 National Security Complex on time and $20 million under budget. The project consisted of “relocation of a road; construction of a new road and bridge; relocation of water and electrical lines; construction of sediment basins and mitigation for wetlands impacted during road construction; and demolition of a parking lot, guard tower, and other structures,” the report said. The NNSA also received approval for construction for the UPF’s site infrastructure and services subproject, which will support preparations for the UPF nuclear construction, the report said.
The report also highlighted the Y-12 Nuclear Facility Risk Reduction Project that replaced aging electrical, water, and other systems in production buildings 9212 and 9204-2E $5.7 million under budget and 11 months early. It noted the NNSA’s “significant progress” in upgrading equipment at the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, as well as the Pantex Plant, that support weapons life-extension programs. It added that the NNSA surpassed the halfway point on its W76-1 warhead life-extension program, which, when completed in 2019, will extend the warheads’ service life an additional 30 years for the U.S. Navy’s submarine-launched ballistic missile fleet.
The NNSA also highlighted removing “approximately 130 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium from several civilian sites, including Kazakhstan, Switzerland, and Uzbekistan.” The agency noted that Uzbekistan and Switzerland are two of 28 countries plus Taiwan that are now HEU-free. The NNSA also recovered “more than 250,000 curies of disused or orphaned radioactive material” and completed “security enhancements at 80 international and 50 domestic buildings,” the report said. It also trained over 3,500 participants from 53 countries on weapons of mass destruction counterterrorism, which contributed to a total of over 11,000 domestic and foreign officials the agency trained. The NNSA “provided radiation detection capabilities to more than 46 countries and assisted with radiation overexposure incidents, source recovery operations, emergency operations center connectivity, and equipment and technical support for major public events,” the report said.
In 2015 the NNSA awarded over 103 competitive procurements, obligated over $233 million to small businesses, awarded the National Security Campus follow-on contract, “resulting in $150 million savings to the government over the life of the contract,” and announced management and operation contract competitions for the Nevada National Security Site and the Sandia National Laboratories, the report said. Other administrative accomplishments include establishing the Office of Policy to examine government-contractor processes and governance initiatives such as “enhancing the Federal/contractor site governance and oversight process, applying staffing analysis and planning processes across DOE to address recruitment, training, and qualification programs,” the report said.
