The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) wants to set aside a cell at Pantex where people can practice arms control verification technology, agency Administrator Jill Hruby said at an arms control conference this week. Formally called a user facility, the converted cell will be an “for those ideas that advance beyond the research phase and look potentially practical to deploy. We can practice conops, we can practice on real or surrogate materials.”
The test-bed initiative, part of the agency’s 2023 budget request, “has not started,” Hruby said in a presentation to the 2022 Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference. “We’ve done some work to get it ready. That is not happening yet.” Hruby said the Joe Biden administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, released this week, “is quite supportive of revitalizing, recapitalizing the nuclear security enterprise, and I see this as part of that.”
The NNSA this week released some new public, unclassified footage of the underground U1a subcritical testing complex at the Nevada National Security Site, which the agency is expanding to support a new imaging tool being built by the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The agency shared the video on Twitter.
As expected, the Department of Energy extended Centerra Group’s paramilitary security contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina by two years. That is according to the most recent major contracts summary issued Monday, which says Centerra’s contract now runs through Oct. 7, 2024.
A DOE spokesperson confirmed the contract extension in a Wednesday email. The total value of the contract, which dates to October 2009, is now listed as $1.6-billion. The DOE announced its intention to extend the agreement in a public notice filed in July on the federal procurement website, SAM.gov.
The depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion plants at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky are both back in service after extended outages.
The Paducah facility in western Kentucky was the first to restart conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) into depleted uranium oxide. That was in November 2021, after an extended pandemic outage for renovations. The Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio restarted in July, an agency spokesperson said via email. The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to use roughly 800 metric tons of depleted uranium hexafluoride from Portsmouth annually for its nuclear-weapon refurbishments.
Akima Infrastructure Services said it was picked by Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) to provide “staff augmentation capabilities for engineering, professional, and technical services” at the Y- 2 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. With options, the award spans four years and is worth up to $63 million, the company announced.
Akima Infrastructure Services and partners Strata-G, LLC and Pinnacle Specialty Group, will provide
engineering, professional, and technical services to address specific project needs, according to a statement from parent company Akima, Herndon, Va. “Roles will include engineers, scientists, and technicians in a variety of disciplines, as well as professionals in business and project management and support roles,” the company wrote.
