UPF to be moved from Y-12?
Frank Munger, Atomic City Underground
Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor, a Washington-based subscription newsletter, reported in its Dec. 10 issue that internal budget documents within the Bush administration suggest that preparations for the Uranium Processing Facility -- a proposed multi-billion-dollar warhead production facility -- could be stretched out and that the site location wouldn't necessarily be at Y-12 in Oak Ridge.
UPF has been proposed as a twin facility to the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, a storage complex that's about 70 percent constructed at Y-12. The UPF would replace the 9212 complex as the Oak Ridge plant's main production center.
"Because cost estimates on the project have risen as high as $3.5 billion, the report directs NNSA to limit UPF work in FY 2009 to 'site-independent design considerations' and look into other locations for th UPF," the newsletter reported.
The newsletter also quoted the pass-back budget documents as saying, "The high costs associated with security at that site (Y-12) have led to the question of whether in the long run it may be more cost effective to construct this component of the 'preferred alternative for complex transformation' in another location."
NNSA declined official comment on the report, although officials privately indicated that the quoted documents are old and no longer valid.
Some type of official statement on the transformation process for the nuclear weapons complex is expected next week, apparently on Tuesday when NNSA chief Tom D'Agostino will preside at a press function.
It's hard to imagine that the government would separate HEUMF and UPF. Imaging having the highly enriched uranium stockpile stored in one building and having to regularly transport the material to another production site for warhead-making. Doesn't make much sense, does it? Talk about a security nightmare.
12 comments:
During the presentation by NNSA at LANL last month, it was clear that Y-12 was going to be drastically downsized over the next few years. At the very least, the security perimeter foot-print at Y-12 will shrink by about 75%.
Much of the current downsizing effort will revolve around NTS. I suspect that significant parts of the NNSA weapons complex will slowly migrate out to NTS. It is an ideal location out in the middle of the barren Nevada desert. This greatly helps with security and pollution issues. Indeed, the follow on to DARHT is already destined to be built out at NTS by around 2015 and LANL's S-Site type big HE experiments are moving out to NTS starting in FY09 according to NNSA budgets.
Not all parts of the complex will end up at NTS, but a large number of them will if NNSA has its way with their 30% downsized complex plans.
"Indeed, the follow on to DARHT is already destined to be built out at NTS by around 2015 and LANL's S-Site type big HE experiments are moving out to NTS starting in FY09 according to NNSA budgets."
Site 300 (location of HE firing sites) at LLNL is already slowly being shut down - soon only one open air site and the Contained Firing Facility will be left operational. LLNL's larger scale HE experiments will also migrate to the NTS by 2015, to a common set of user facilities operated by NSTec (or the follow-on contractor if NSTec is not successful in their re-bid in about 5-1/2 years).
BTW, DARHT is in TA-15. Most, if not all, of the other active firing sites are (or recently were) in TA-36 and TA-39. None of LANL's firing sites are in TA-16 (S-Site).
Vegas, baby.
Whatever happens within NNSA stays at NNSA.
"Much of the current downsizing effort will revolve around NTS. I suspect that significant parts of the NNSA weapons complex will slowly migrate out to NTS. It is an ideal location out in the middle of the barren Nevada desert. This greatly helps with security and pollution issues."
I agree with your thinking and I too think we'll hear more about this very soon.
Seems to be expensive....
With regard to the gradual transition of work from LANL, LLNL, and other DOE sites to the NTS, there's an important fact to keep in mind - all facilities will be operated and maintained by NSTec and any follow-on M&O contractors. There are almost 100 LANL and LLNL employees permanently stationed at the NTS, but by the end of FY08, that number may dwindle to 15 or fewer. Very few will be offered positions back at their respective home Labs, more than a handful will receive employment offers from NSTec (probably at reduced salaries and definitely at reduced benefits), and some will become unemployed.
The new model will be very similar to the days of UGT that ended in 1992 - many people traveling back and forth to field experiments, but without the Lab infrastructure presence to support their stay and their work. Almost all support will be provided by the M&O-operated user facilities and the underlying NTS infrastructure. With the user facility model, there will essentially be no Nevada-based employment opportunities for Lab personnel.
Almost as if our elected officials were stupid, crooked, and incompetent. As long as they get rich who cares?
Oh, don't worry about that 9:27 AM, the politicians and their friends are all getting very rich. I'm sure some of the people working at LANL can identify with the NYT story below. Much, much more for the top 1% and less for the bottom 99% is how things work across America, even at our national labs.
www.nytimes.com/
2007/12/15/business/15rich.html
** Report Says That the Rich Are Getting Richer Faster, Much Faster **
New York Times, Dec 15, 2007
Earlier reports, based on tax returns, showed that in 2005 the top 10 percent, top 1 percent and fractions of the top 1 percent enjoyed their greatest share of income since 1928 and 1929.
“A lot of people justifiably feel they are working harder and smarter, they are baking a bigger and better pie, and yet their slice is not growing much at all,” Mr. Bernstein said. “It is meaningless to middle- and low-income families to say we have a great economy because their economy looks so much different than folks at the top of the scale because this is an economy that is working, but not working for everyone.”
Hey, I am retiring because this place is going down a shit hole thanks to our "leadership" that are in it for themselves (bonuses) or wan't to see things go to Livermore. I hope Younger takes all the LANL work and builds an empire at NTS. Then f*ck LANS and Bechtel (who BTW lost the NTS contract to Younger and company).
"top 1 percent enjoyed their greatest share of income since 1928 and 1929."
So what happened in 1930?
"So what happened in 1930?" - 11:00 PM
The same thing that is probably getting ready to happen sometime around 2009. Read Krugman's latest from the NYT. Many of the big US banks are already teetering on the brink of insolvency. They just don't want you to know about it... yet.
www.nytimes.com/
2007/12/14/opinion/
14krugman.html
After The Money's Gone
- Paul Krugman, NYT Dec 14
In past financial crises — the stock market crash of 1987, the aftermath of Russia’s default in 1998 — the Fed has been able to wave its magic wand and make market turmoil disappear. But this time the magic isn’t working.
Why not? Because the problem with the markets isn’t just a lack of liquidity — there’s also a fundamental problem of solvency.
...Matters are very different, however, if the rumor is true: the bank really did make a big bad loan. Then the problem isn’t how to restore confidence; it’s how to deal with the fact that the bank is really, truly insolvent, that is, busted.
...And the numbers are huge. The financial blog Calculated Risk, using data from First American CoreLogic, estimates that if home prices fall 20 percent there will be 13.7 million homeowners with negative equity. If prices fall 30 percent, that number would rise to more than 20 million.
That translates into a lot of losses, and explains why liquidity has dried up. What’s going on in the markets isn’t an irrational panic. It’s a wholly rational panic, because there’s a lot of bad debt out there, and you don’t know how much of that bad debt is held by the guy who wants to borrow your money.
How will it all end? Markets won’t start functioning normally until investors are reasonably sure that they know where the bodies — I mean, the bad debts — are buried. And that probably won’t happen until house prices have finished falling and financial institutions have come clean about all their losses. All of this will probably take years.
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