Consolidated National Security said last week it has since 2015 awarded some $725 million in purchase orders and subcontracts for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
“Some of the largest awards included structural steel, rebar, specialized equipment and a subcontract for an onsite concrete batch plant,” the project prime said in a June 7 press release.
Bechtel National, the lead partner on the Consolidated Nuclear Security team, is building the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) under a subcontract to the prime. Major construction officially began after March 21, when the NNSA certified UPF had reached the project milestone known as CD-2. The semiautonomous Energy Department agency estimates construction will be complete by Dec. 31, 2025, and cost no more than $6.5 billion.
It was not clear how much of the $725 million worth of subcontracts and purchases Consolidated Nuclear Security awarded since CD-2. The total awarded so far accounts for about half of all purchases the contractor plans for the project, according to the press release.
The UPF will eventually replace the 1950s-vintage 9212 complex, which has produced uranium for U.S. atomic defense programs since the beginning of the Cold War. While 9212 essentially put every step in uranium processing under one roof, UPF will split the process among three buildings: an approach the NNSA believes will save the government money.
Consolidated Nuclear Security announced its UPF purchasing milestone the same week the Senate Armed Services Committee, in the bill report appended to its 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, said it wants increased scrutiny of the company’s prime contract.
Since 2014, Consolidated Nuclear Security has managed the Y-12 National Security Complex near Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex nuclear-weapon assembly and disassembly plant in Amarillo, Texas, under a single contract awarded by the NNSA’s Production Office.
The NNSA combined management of the previously separate sites in hopes of saving money by reducing administrative and financial costs. The Senate committee’s bill report would direct the U.S. comptroller general to study whether the savings were great enough for the agency to pick up the first two-year option on Consolidated Nuclear Security’s contract. A pair of two-year options and a one-year option could extend the deal into 2024.
