National Nuclear Security Administration Archives

Y-12 has emergency management exercise on Wednesday

Posted at 11:02 am June 9, 2019
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

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

Emergency response personnel from the National Nuclear Security Administration and Consolidated Nuclear Security—along with federal, state, and local emergency management personnel—will conduct an emergency management exercise in and around the Y-12 National Security Complex on Wednesday, June 12.

“During this exercise, people in the vicinity of the Y-12 may observe personnel simulating response activities and performing environmental monitoring or sampling, but these offsite activities are part of the exercise,” a press release said.

[Read more…]

Highly enriched uranium from UK brought to Y-12 for secure storage

Posted at 2:10 am May 14, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above. (Photo courtesy CNS Y-12)

Note: This story was updated at 9:15 a.m.

Almost 700 kilograms of highly enriched uranium has been moved from the United Kingdom to the United States, and the material is being securely stored at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge for now, federal officials said.

The National Nuclear Security Administration said this month that the highly enriched uranium, or HEU, will be down-blended later into low enriched uranium for use as nuclear reactor fuel.

“The material was returned to Y-12 for secure storage awaiting future disposition,” the NNSA said in a statement provided Friday by Steven Wyatt of the NNSA Production Office in Oak Ridge.

Wyatt said Y-12 supported the removal effort, which was announced by the NNSA on May 3, through technical oversight and guidance of the processing and packaging of material.

[Read more…]

DOE updating security order after intelligence reports about drone threats

Posted at 6:40 pm May 4, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A drone is pictured above. (Photo courtesy Federal Aviation Administration)

The U.S. Department of Energy is updating a classified security order that will reflect recent intelligence assessments about the threats posed by unmanned aerial systems, or drones, as some federal officials express concerns that terrorists could use drones to harm the United States.

That information is included in a report issued by the DOE Inspector General, or IG, in April.

While developing the report, the IG reviewed controls in place at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Idaho National Laboratory. The IG found that the National Nuclear Security Administration, including Y-12, has been proactive in establishing “limited internal controls” that include observing and reporting unmanned aerial systems, as well as using deadly force if hostile intent is determined.

The IG said drones are becoming increasingly popular, and some unmanned aerial systems that are commercially available and relatively affordable have high-definition cameras, auto pilot global positioning system navigation, and the ability to carry and remotely release payloads.

[Read more…]

For members: Likely cause of Y-12 gas leak has been identified

Posted at 1:06 pm May 4, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

An inspection has determined the likely cause of the hydrogen fluoride gas leak in the main processing building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in April.

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(For members) New lithium building a priority as ceiling materials fall in old one

Posted at 1:50 pm April 6, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

A new lithium processing facility that could be built in Oak Ridge is a priority for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which has cited worker safety and materials that have fallen from the ceiling at the old building now used at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

As a priority, the new lithium processing facility is right behind the number one priorities: the production of plutonium pits at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and uranium processing at the Uranium Processing Facility, which is now under construction at Y-12, said Charles Verdon, NNSA deputy administrator for defense programs.

NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty cited the materials that have fallen from the ceiling at the old Y-12 building used for lithium processing, 9204-2, or Beta 2, in her response to questions during a budget hearing with the U.S. House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee on Tuesday.

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Normal operations resume, no injuries reported after sensors show possible release of HF at Y-12

Posted at 10:07 am April 4, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Note: This story was last updated at 11 a.m.

Normal operations have resumed, and no injuries were reported after sensors indicated a potential release of hydrogen fluoride inside a processing enclosure within the main processing building at the Y-12 National Security Complex on Thursday morning.

The emergency incident was reported at 7:52 a.m. Thursday. The situation was reported to be under control within about an hour, just after 9 a.m. Emergency operations were terminated at 10:15 a.m.

Two sensors had indicated a potential release of hydrogen fluoride gas, said JoEddy Moore of Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, which manages and operates Y-12 for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The concentration was in the range of parts per million.

Employees in the buildings in and around the 9212 processing complex were evacuated to other buildings in the production area on the west side of Y-12. [Read more…]

Emergency personnel respond to incident at Y-12

Posted at 9:19 am April 4, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Note: This story was last updated at 1:20 p.m.

Update: Normal operations have resumed, and no injuries were reported after sensors indicated a potential release of hydrogen fluoride inside a processing enclosure within the main processing building at the Y-12 National Security Complex on Thursday morning. See newer story with more details here.

An incident has occurred at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. Y-12 emergency response personnel are at the scene of the incident, the plant said in a press release Thursday morning.

Appropriate precautionary protective actions have been started for Y-12 employees who are near the incident and who are not involved in the emergency response. At this time, there is no offsite impact to the public as a result of the incident, the press release said.

The incident occurred at 7:52 a.m. No other confirmed details are available at this time, the press release said. [Read more…]

Unique partnership helps Y-12 employee Chris Borum pursue a new path

Posted at 2:00 pm March 21, 2019
By Owen Driskill Leave a Comment

Chris Borum

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

Chris Borum, for more than 16 years a security guard at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, said it was time for a change.

As the years passed, he worried he might not be able to meet rigorous annual physical qualifications for his job at the nuclear weapons facility.

Borum, a Kingston resident, said he wanted to stay at Y-12 and eventually retire from there, “but I wanted to leave on my own terms.”

So when a job posting for a material handler was posted on the Y-12’s Intranet, he went for it. [Read more…]

(For members) NRC finds no significant impact from producing tritium at Watts Bar 2

Posted at 12:12 pm February 13, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced on Monday that there would be no significant impact from producing tritium for nuclear weapons in a second unit at the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant in Rhea County.

The project involves the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

The tritium could be produced in Unit 2 at Watts Bar, which is near Spring City about 45 miles southwest of Oak Ridge.

Tritium, which boosts the yields of nuclear weapons, is already being produced in Watts Bar Unit 1. The Tennessee Valley Authority has been producing tritium there since 2003.

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(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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(For members) Three national labs building exascale computers

Posted at 6:39 pm February 4, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Three national laboratories, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, are building new computer systems that could be many times more powerful than today’s top supercomputers.

The new machines are exascale systems. None have been delivered yet, but the planning for them started more than a year ago and the new high-performance systems could be delivered to the three laboratories in the next several years. Planning for the exascale computers was under way even before the world’s most powerful supercomputer, a petaflop system called Summit at ORNL, was unveiled in June 2018.

Exascale computers could be 50 to 100 more powerful than today’s petaflop computers, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Besides ORNL, they could be located at Argonne National Laboratory southwest of Chicago and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory east of San Francisco. The first system is expected at Argonne, followed by a second system at ORNL.

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Ten-year costs of nuclear forces estimated at $494 billion

Posted at 4:04 pm January 26, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

U.S. nuclear forces could cost about $494 billion during a 10-year period if current plans are followed, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO is required by law to estimate the 10-year costs every two years. The new estimate is $494 billion for work between 2019 to 2028, the CBO said in a report published this month. That’s an average of just under $50 billion a year.

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge participates in the nuclear weapons work along with other U.S. Department of Energy sites and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The CBO said nuclear weapons have been an important part of U.S. national security since they were developed during World War II. Oak Ridge was the main production site for the top-secret project to build those first weapons, and Y-12 continues to work on nuclear weapons. One modernization program for the W76-1 warhead was recently completed, and another for the B61-12 bomb has started.

The CBO said nuclear forces were central to U.S. defense policy during the Cold War, and a large arsenal was built. [Read more…]

Y-12 has emergency management exercise on Wednesday

Highly enriched uranium from UK brought to Y-12 for secure storage

DOE updating security order after intelligence reports about drone threats

For members: Likely cause of Y-12 gas leak has been identified

(For members) New lithium building a priority as ceiling materials fall in old one

Normal operations resume, no injuries reported after sensors show possible release of HF at Y-12

Emergency personnel respond to incident at Y-12

Unique partnership helps Y-12 employee Chris Borum pursue a new path

(For members) NRC finds no significant impact from producing tritium at Watts Bar 2

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

(For members) Three national labs building exascale computers

Ten-year costs of nuclear forces estimated at $494 billion

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