Y-12 Archives - Oak Ridge Today

(For members) DOE could lease space to store elemental mercury

Posted at 1:52 pm February 11, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The U.S. Department of Energy is considering whether to lease space to store elemental mercury from sites across the country.

The facility could store about 1,200 metric tons (1,300 tons) of elemental mercury. The waste has been generated at sites in the United States, mostly at gold mining operations, according to the DOE Office of Environmental Management.

The mercury that could be stored at the leased facility is separate from the 1,200 metric tons of mercury stored at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. The Y-12 mercury, about 2.6 million pounds stored in seamless steel flasks, was acquired for lithium-6 isotope separation operations for thermonuclear weapons.

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Y-12 finishes first production unit for B61-12 bomb

Posted at 5:43 pm January 21, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Employees at Y-12 National Security Complex recently completed the first production unit of the B61-12. This refurbishment will extend the life of this strategic weapon for 20 years. (Submitted photo)

Note: This story was last updated at 9:45 a.m. Jan. 22.

Canned subassembly certified four months ahead of schedule

The Y-12 National Security Complex on Monday said it has completed a major milestone in efforts to refurbish components for a strategic nuclear weapons system that is vital to the U.S. nuclear deterrent.

The first production unit for a bomb called the B61-12 was certified at Y-12 on December 6, 2018.

The work is part of the B61 Life Extension Program, or LEP. The B61 is a nuclear bomb that can be carried on several types of military aircraft. The B61 LEP will extend the life of this strategic weapon for 20 years, said Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, which manages and operates Y-12 for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

B61 bombs are the oldest nuclear weapons in the nation’s active stockpile. They have been in service almost 50 years, and critical components of the bombs are reaching the end of their operational lives. The B61 was first “fielded” in 1968, and current modifications were fielded between 1979 and 1991, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. [Read more…]

State approves demolition of Biology Complex buildings at Y-12

Posted at 2:50 pm January 5, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Tennessee officials have approved the demolition of two large buildings—buildings 9207 and 9210—at the Biology Complex at the Y-12 National Security Complex, Y-12 announced in December 2018. (Photo courtesy Y-12)

Tennessee officials have approved the demolition of two large buildings at the Biology Complex at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The Biology Complex once housed more people with doctorates than anywhere in the world, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. DOE has said the men and women who worked there radically enhanced the world’s knowledge in biology, including the discovery of the Y chromosome.

Y-12 announced in December that the Tennessee Historical Commission had approved the demolition of the two buildings: Buildings 9207 and 9210. The buildings date back to the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. Oak Ridge was part of that project.

The demolition work at the Biology Complex is being overseen by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. [Read more…]

Y-12 manufactured uranium core for space power experiment

Posted at 1:06 pm January 5, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge manufactured the uranium core piece for the KRUSTY experiment, which is testing a new power source that could provide safe, efficient energy for future robotic and human space exploration missions. (Photo courtesy NNSA)

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge manufactured the uranium core piece for the KRUSTY experiment, which tested a new nuclear power source that could provide safe, efficient energy for robotic and human space exploration missions. (Photo courtesy NNSA)

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge manufactured the uranium reactor core for a federal experiment that tested whether a nuclear energy source could provide power for space exploration.

“The full-power run showed that it may be feasible for NASA to use small fission reactors for deep space exploration and manned missions to the moon and Mars,” the National Nuclear Security Administration said in May.

The NNSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, worked with NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) on the project. It’s nicknamed KRUSTY, an acronym for Kilowatt Reactor Using Stirling Technology.

“In a joint venture with NASA last year, NNSA completed final design, fabrication, and full-power testing of a nuclear criticality experiment that can be used for a manned lunar or Mars space mission,” NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty said in a post published on Twitter on Friday.

The uranium reactor core from Y-12 was delivered to the National Criticality Experiments Research Center at the Nevada National Security Site in the fall of 2017. [Read more…]

(For members) Y-12 class could be added to worker compensation program based on thorium, Pu-241 exposure

Posted at 6:33 pm December 28, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A new class of Y-12 employees could be added to a federal worker compensation program based on exposure to radiation from thorium metal parts and plutonium-241 isotopes between 1958 and 1976, health officials said.

The worker compensation program involves certain illnesses and work at sites like Y-12 that are affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy.

The program is a result of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, which was enacted in October 2000. The act includes what is known as the Special Exposure Cohort. The new class of Y-12 employees could be part of that Special Exposure Cohort.

That designation would allow eligible claimants to be compensated without the complete reconstruction of a radiation dose or a determination of the probable cause. A covered employee would have to have at least one of 22 specified cancers.

The class of employees being evaluated now would have worked at Y-12 between January 1, 1958, through December 31, 1976, when Y-12 was manufacturing nuclear weapons components during the Cold War. The employees would have had an aggregate total of at least 250 work days, according to a notice published in the Federal Register this month. The class could change, however, based upon the evaluation.

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New class of Y-12 employees being evaluated for worker compensation program

Posted at 12:53 pm December 14, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is pictured above in June 2012. (Photo courtesy NNSA)

A new class of employees at the Y-12 National Security Complex is being evaluated for possible inclusion in a worker compensation program that involves certain illnesses and work at sites affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy.

The class of employees being evaluated now would have worked at Y-12 between January 1, 1958, through December 31, 1976, and they would have had an aggregate total of at least 250 work days, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on Friday. The class could change, however, based upon the evaluation.

The decision to evaluate the petition for the Y-12 employees was announced by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

It’s not clear when the petition was filed, who filed it, or how long the evaluation might take. Oak Ridge Today has requested more information from the CDC. [Read more…]

DOE awards $91 million contract for Mercury Treatment Facility at Y-12

Posted at 8:51 am December 5, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The planned Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. (Image courtesy UCOR/U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a $91 million contract to build the Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

It’s part of an effort to reduce the amount of mercury in East Fork Poplar Creek and allow the demolition of several large Y-12 buildings where mercury was used to help make nuclear weapons during the Cold War.

The contract, which could be in place for up to four years, was awarded to APTIM-North Wind Construction JV LLC, DOE said Tuesday. [Read more…]

Y-12 facilities could be crucial in plan to replace W78 warhead

Posted at 1:41 pm December 4, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

U.S. Air Force missile maintainers working on an intercontinental ballistic missile. (Source: U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Braydon Williams/GAO-19-84)

The National Nuclear Security Administration is preparing to restart a program to replace the W78 nuclear warhead, and new facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex could be important to that project, a federal agency said Friday.

The W78 is one of two types of warheads on U.S. Air Force intercontinental ballistic missiles. The W87 is the other.

Critical components inside the W78 are aging, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which published a report about the warhead replacement program on Friday. Also, the military’s requirements for, among other things, the safety and security features of the warhead have changed since it entered the stockpile in 1979, the GAO said.

Besides being used by the Air Force, the replacement W78 warhead could be used in ballistic missiles launched from Navy submarines, although further studies are required, the GAO said.

The two Y-12 facilities that could affect the warhead replacement program are the Uranium Processing Facility, which is now under construction, and the Lithium Production Facility, which could have a new building through a project that is still in the planning stages. [Read more…]

(For members) NNSA modernizing weapons as U.S. nuclear stockpile shrinks

Posted at 3:44 pm December 2, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile continues to shrink and it’s gotten older, but the National Nuclear Security Administration, which has a site in Oak Ridge, has four modernization programs under way. That’s the busiest the NNSA has been since the Cold War era, Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty said in a report to Congress in October.

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, which enriched uranium for the first atomic bomb used in wartime, has been involved in the work to modernize some weapons and dismantle others as the stockpile changes.

The rest of this story, which you will find only on Oak Ridge Today, includes more information about Y-12’s work on nuclear weapons and a series of nine questions and answers with Hans M. Kristensen, the director of the Nuclear Information Project at Federation of American Scientists.

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NNSA deploying systems to counter drones, including at Y-12

Posted at 11:09 pm November 19, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The counter-unmanned aircraft system installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to enforce the federally designated no-drone zone. (Photo courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration)

The National Nuclear Security Administration is deploying systems that will counter drones at four sites that house special nuclear materials, including the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

Deployed by the Office of Defense Nuclear Security, the systems are designed to mitigate any malicious aerial intruders at NNSA sites. They will have the capability to detect, identify, track, and intercept unsanctioned and suspicious drones, the NNSA said Monday.

One system has already been deployed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

“We needed a system to counter threats ranging from on-site disruption by protestors to intelligence gathering, surveillance, and reconnaissance of NNSA sites, plants, and labs,” said Lewis Monroe III, director of security operations and programmatic planning. [Read more…]

Y-12 approved for B61-12 weapons work

Posted at 11:14 am October 21, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Image from U.S. Government Accountability Office report in May 2018 on B61-12 Nuclear Bomb.

Image from U.S. Government Accountability Office report in May 2018 on the B61-12 nuclear bomb.

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge has been approved to produce a major component of a nuclear bomb known as the B61-12.

The approval was the final step to authorize the manufacturing and delivery of the first production unit of a component called the canned subassembly. It’s scheduled for March 2019, according to Y-12. A canned subassembly is the second stage of a modern thermonuclear weapon, and it is part of the nuclear explosives package.

The Y-12 work is part of the B61-12 Life Extension Program, which will consolidate four versions of the bomb into one. The bombs could be carried on B-2A bomber aircraft and F-15Es, several types of F-16s, and PA-200 fighters, and in the future, F-35s and B-21s.

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Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

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DNFSB: Moving fissile materials, operations from Y-12 building improves nuclear safety, reduces risk

Posted at 12:44 pm October 7, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Building 9204-2 (Beta 2) is pictured above at center at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Part of Building 9204-2E (Beta 2E) is pictured in the top left. (Photo courtesy Consolidated Nuclear Security)

Nuclear materials and operations have been removed from an old building at the Y-12 National Security Complex, and that improves safety and reduces the risk to workers and the public, a federal safety board said.

The building, 9204-2, or Beta 2, is on the west side of Y-12. It’s one of nine buildings at the 811-acre site that once used machines known as calutrons to enrich uranium for atomic bombs as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. It’s now used to produce lithium for nuclear weapons.

In an early September report, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said Consolidated Nuclear Security and the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office had officially downgraded Building 9204-2. It had been a category two hazard, but it is now less than category three. It’s considered non-nuclear.

The rest of this story, which you will find only on Oak Ridge Today, is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or recent contributor to Oak Ridge Today.

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Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

If you prefer to send a check, you may do so by mailing one to:

Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
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(For members) DOE could lease space to store elemental mercury

Y-12 finishes first production unit for B61-12 bomb

State approves demolition of Biology Complex buildings at Y-12

Y-12 manufactured uranium core for space power experiment

(For members) Y-12 class could be added to worker compensation program based on thorium, Pu-241 exposure

New class of Y-12 employees being evaluated for worker compensation program

DOE awards $91 million contract for Mercury Treatment Facility at Y-12

Y-12 facilities could be crucial in plan to replace W78 warhead

(For members) NNSA modernizing weapons as U.S. nuclear stockpile shrinks

NNSA deploying systems to counter drones, including at Y-12

Y-12 approved for B61-12 weapons work

DNFSB: Moving fissile materials, operations from Y-12 building improves nuclear safety, reduces risk

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