March 17, 2014

WATCHDOG GROUP CALLS FOR REASSESSMENT OF URANIUM PROCESSING FACILITY

By ExchangeMonitor

The Project on Government Oversight has released a new report calling for the government to stop pouring money into the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge until the project’s need has been better documented and other, far-less-expensive options have been explored. POGO noted that the cost of UPF has skyrocketed from $600 million to current estimates in the range of $11 billion in less than a decade, with serious delays in the schedule for construction and first operation of the facility—even though the project’s scope has been scaled back. The report said UPF appears to be an overly expensive option for Y-12’s future work on nuclear weapons, some of which may not be necessary or could be done elsewhere.

The watchdog group said at least one of the missions currently done at Y-12 and planned for UPF—the recertification of secondaries and canned sub-assemblies—could be transferred to the Pantex Plant. If the certification work was moved to Pantex, it would not only save money, it would boost security by eliminating some of the transportation of weapons parts between Oak Ridge and Amarillo. “This is one of the biggest benefits of transferring this program to Pantex,” the POGO report said. “The CSAs do not need to be shipped across the country to Y-12 and back again to Pantex [where final assembly of warheads takes place], which is not only expensive but also leaves the sensitive nuclear material far more vulnerable to theft or attack.” The group also suggested that some of the often-stated concerns about the age of the currently used production facilities at Y-12—including the notorious 9212 complex—may have been overstated in order to pump up support for the Uranium Processing Facility.

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