WASHINGTON — The Congressman who represents the Y-12 National Security Complex is confident the weapons facility could handle the National Nuclear Security Administration’s tritium mission, should the agency eventually move the mission to Oak Ridge, Tenn.
“I want NNSA [the National Nuclear Security Administration] to make the final decision, but the Oak Ridge Reservation can handle any mission,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing here.
In a June 29 memo, NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty said the agency has commissioned a working group to study whether to move the tritium mission to Y-12 from the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., after a federal court ruling that temporarily stymied the agency’s plan to make nuclear warhead cores at Savannah River.
In the memo to the manager of the NNSA Savannah River Field Office, Gordon-Hagerty said the court ruling forced the agency to “reevaluate the viability to execute enduring missions at the Savannah River Site.”
Fleischman said he has not read, or previously heard of, Gordon-Hagerty’s memo.
Consolidated Nuclear Security — a Bechtel-led team that also includes Leidos, Northrop Grumman, SOC Corp. and subcontractor Booz Allen Hamilton — manages and operates Y-12 and NNSA’s Pantex Plant under a contract awarded in 2014. The contract includes an option to relocate NNSA’s tritium processing to Oak Ridge.
Congress appropriated about $300 million for NNSA tritium processing at Savannah River Site for 2018. The Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions manages the tritium work now under a contract set to expire July 31. The Department of Energy has said it will likely extend the pact to July 31, 2019.
