Weapons plant uranium work late, over budget
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The restart of bomb-grade uranium processing at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge is five years overdue and about $300 million over budget, according to an internal audit released Thursday.
Since Y-12 is the only facility in the United States capable of recovering and purifying highly enriched uranium for warheads, the delay may have greater significance than the cost.
“As a result, the enriched uranium operations necessary for national security are not available to meet future mission needs,” the Energy Department’s inspector general’s office wrote. “Without enriched uranium, these nuclear weapons will not work as designed.”
Y-12 also is this country’s primary storehouse for weapons-grade uranium. The delay in processing is causing a buildup of “salvageable material” that is “placing enormous pressure on its storage facilities,” the inspector general added.
The National Nuclear Security Administration, the semiautonomous agency within the Energy Department that oversees the nuclear weapons program, blamed the delays on Y-12’s previous managing contractor, Martin Marietta Energy Systems.
“We believe that the new contractor … is adequately addressing the challenges of restarting the enriched uranium processes at the site and has gotten the program back on track,” wrote Michael Kane, NNSA’s associate administrator for management and administration.
BWXT, a partnership of BWX Technologies and Bechtel National, assumed Y-12’s management contract in September 2000.
BWXT spokesman Bill Wilburn said Thursday that NNSA’s response “validates we are doing what we promised to do.”
Y-12’s uranium processing operation has been shuttered since 1994 after an accidental release of hydrogen fluoride raised safety concerns. The original estimate was to restart the program by December 1998 at a cost of $119 million.
While some processes within the program have been restored — including casting, machining and forming uranium — “several of the remaining processes will not be operational until at least July 2004, more than five years later than originally planned,” Inspector General Gregory Friedman wrote.
“Further, management estimated that total project costs could exceed $400 million, about three times the original estimate,” Friedman added.
NNSA announced 11 months ago that the full operation of the uranium processing program was imminent. But with wet chemistry, oxide conversion and salvage treatment processes yet to resume, the inspector general’s report said full operation may be “at least three years” away.
Against NNSA’s assurances of improvement, the inspector general concluded that DOE “must continue to be vigilant to ensure Y-12’s ability to meet future mission requirements.”
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