From staff reports
NS&D Monitor
4/18/2014
Bruce Held, the former acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, received the report from a Red Team assembled to look at alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility this week, but it’s not clear when—or if—the partially classified report will be released or how the NNSA plans to proceed with the findings. Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason, who headed the Red Team review of Y-12’s uranium missions, said he was pleased with the team’s work but didn’t reveal details of the team’s proposed alternative to the UPF concept. “I think we were able to respond to the charge and come up with a possible alternative for the NNSA to consider,” he said. “I learned a lot and I think everybody on the team did, and that’s always gratifying when you can spend some time digging into something and hopefully contribute.”
NNSA Plans for Report Unclear
As for the release of the findings, Mason said, “We’re delivering it to the acting administrator, and it’ll be up to them [NNSA] to respond. They’ll have to decide how they want to share the result.” The ORNL chief said he provided an electronic copy of the report to Held and expected to follow that up with briefings in the days ahead. Since then, retired Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz was sworn in as NNSA administrator. Mason had earlier said he planned to follow-up with briefings to Klotz once he was sworn in, but those now may be incorporated in the discussions with Held.
Earlier this month, Mason confirmed that the members of the Red Team had reached a “strong consensus” on a potential alternative to the all-inclusive UPF model. The goal was to come up with a plan that allows Y-12 to get out of its 9212 uranium complex by 2025 and complete the necessary upgrades within acceptable risks by spending no more than the project’s stated cost rank of $4.2 billion to $6.5 billion. Mason said the main part of the report is about 20 pages long, but the appendices, which includes bios on all the team members and other supplementary information, add about 100 pages to the report.
Findings Highly Anticipated
There are plenty of people anxious to see the findings, which could alter plans for the multibillion-dollar project at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) recently said in a hearing that he thought the Red Team concept—using teams of experts to do quick, but comprehensive reviews—could be applied to a number of big projects with runaway costs. He said he wants to call a special hearing to focus on the Red Team work and its roots in science projects such as the Spallation Neutron Source, which Mason directed at ORNL.
Alexander also has said he favors public release of the Red Team information as long as it doesn’t undermine national security. Mason said the report contains both classified and unclassified information. Asked if that meant an unclassified version of the report could be made available, he said, “UCNI [unclassified controlled nuclear information] is still not releasable. It will be up to NNSA to determine what can be shared publicly.”
