IN THE NNSA
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said late last month that its Asset Management Program (AMP) completed a pilot to replace and repair infrastructure at the Core Library and Data Center at Mercury, Nev. The $520,000 pilot replaced the roof and heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) system at the library, a “repository for geologic, hydrologic, and geophysical data and materials” supporting the Department of Energy’s defense and environment programs at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), the NNSA said.
The AMP, an expansion of the agency’s Roof Asset Management Program, “accelerates infrastructure repair rates by bundling the replacement of major building systems that are common across the NNSA enterprise, such as roofs and HVAC systems, under a centralized contract,” the announcement said. James McConnell, NNSA associate administrator of safety, infrastructure, and operations, said the pilot effort “prepares us for the full-scale HVAC program in 2017.” The NNSA said the system was installed by the Kansas City Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies contracting team, roofing consulting firm Technical Assurance, and teams from NNSS managing contractor National Security Technologies.
IN THE INDUSTRY
The U.S. government has given approval for nuclear energy company Westinghouse Electric to buy CB&I Stone & Webster Inc. following an acquisition agreement the companies signed late October, Westinghouse announced this week. The global nuclear plant technology supplier created WECTEC, a subsidiary that will house the $229 million acquisition, CB&I’s nuclear construction business. WECTEC will continue project operations, which include nuclear power plant construction contracts in the U.S. and China, and nuclear engineering projects in the U.S., the company said.
The acquisition will not impact parent company CB&I’s participation in construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, which is intended to convert surplus weapon-grade plutonium into fuel for commercial nuclear power plants, the company said. CB&I Areva MOX Services is the contractor in charge of the design and construction of the facility.
Centrus Energy Corp. said Wednesday it has established a new advisory board of five national security and energy industry veterans. Centrus, an enriched uranium fuel supplier for commercial nuclear power plants, said its board members “will advise senior management in its efforts to restore America’s domestic uranium enrichment capability for national security purposes and to expand the company’s role as [a] trusted supplier of enriched uranium fuel” worldwide.
The new members are Tom Donilon, partner and vice chair of O’Melveny & Myers and former U.S. national security adviser in the Obama administration; Susan Eisenhower, CEO of The Eisenhower Group and a previous member of the National Academy of Sciences Standing Committee on International Security and Arms Control; John Hamre, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former deputy secretary of defense; Franklin Miller, principal at The Scowcroft Group and former special assistant to President George W. Bush; and Michael Wallace, former vice chairman of Constellation Energy.
Centrus spokesman Jeremy Derryberry said “these are all leaders that we trust and respect for their superb judgement as well as their deep, wide ranging experience with the business, energy and national security environments in which we work.”
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will extend for another three months its contract with Synergy Solutions Inc. (SSI) for personnel security program support services, according to a justification and approval document posted yesterday. The contract with Oak Ridge-based SSI for support services to the NNSA’s 49,000 contractor and federal employees with security clearances has been extended several times since the initial award in November 2009. The latest $2.3 million modification extending the period of performance until Mar. 2016, plus three one-month option periods, will provide more time for the NNSA to finalize a follow-on contract, the justification says. SSI’s work includes "personnel security access authorization” processing and background investigations of cleared employees and applicants, it says. The NNSA plans to award a follow-on contract for the work in March 2016.
