Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) has replaced nearly 10,000 sprinkler heads at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, completing a $46 million retrofit of safety hardware last touched in the 1960s, according to a press release this week.
The new sprinkler heads, installed in six different facilities, replace some that were at or near the end of their 50-year useful lives, the release says
The Bechtel National-led contractor will soon enter its final year on the job managing Y-12 and an affiliate nuclear-weapon site, the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in June announced it would not pick up any of the remaining three options on the company’s contract. That means the team will be out after Sept. 30, 2021, as things now stand.
The NNSA has not confirmed whether it will keep management of Y-12 and Pantex bundled under one contract in the future, but the agency did say it has seen benefits from the double-barrelled approach of the Consolidated Nuclear Security era.
