Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12)
Overview
- One of the nation's premier nuclear materials facilities.
- Critical to national security.
- Focus on the production and refurbishment of weapons components, storage of nuclear material and prevention of the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
- Managed by Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12, LLC (B&W Y-12), a limited liability enterprise of B&W and Bechtel National Inc., for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
- Employees participate in Integrated Safety Management and Behavior Based Safety - the practice of incorporating safety into every aspect of work.
Mission
- Produce, refurbish and dismantle nuclear weapons components.
- Safeguard special nuclear materials.
- Prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
- Provide the U.S. Navy with safe, effective nuclear propulsion systems.
- Provide support for other national security needs and customers, as required.
Recent Accomplishments
- Received Critical Decision 1 Approval to begin preliminary design of the Uranium Production Facility (UPF), a consolidated facility for enriched uranium operations including assembly, disassembly, quality evaluation, metal working and product certification. UPF will consolidate the enriched uranium operations footprint by 60 percent and will significantly reduce annual operating costs.
- Relocated 1,500 employees from more than 50 separate buildings into two privately financed buildings, enabling Y-12 to tear down a large number of obsolete and inefficient facilities.
- Completed the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, which will replace multiple aging facilities and allow storage of high-enriched uranium (HEU) in one central location for maximized physical security protection with minimal vulnerabilities and operating costs.
- Received four R&D 100 awards from R&D Magazine, which recognizes the year's most significant technological innovations. Y-12 received the 2008 awards for its Negligible-wool, a new process for producing high-purity carbon nanotubes quickly and at a fraction of the typical cost; and SpaciMS: Spatially Resolved Capillary Inlet Mass Spectrometer.
- Received numerous environmental awards during 2008. The Y-12 Pollution Prevention team has completed more than 600 pollution prevention projects including recycling projects that resulted in the elimination of more 1.7 billion pounds of waste at an estimated cost avoidance of $44 million.
- Signed more than 20 mentor-protégé agreements with small disadvantaged firms - more than any other site in the NNSA weapons complex.
Contract/Budget
- Facility managed by B&W Technical Services Y-12, LLC since November 2000.
- Contract extends to 2010.
- Funding for FY2009 is anticipated to be nearly $1 billion.
Infrastructure
- Y-12 National Security Complex covers more than 800 acres.
- Complex is almost 2.5 miles long and more than .25 miles wide.
- More than 300 buildings and over six-million square feet of floor space.
Workforce
- More than 4,400 people are employed at Y-12.
- Approximately 90 NNSA employees work at the complex.
- Approximately 1,500 employees at Y-12 are represented by the Atomic Trades and Labor Council, an umbrella organization of 16 local trade unions. The International Guards Union of America represents the protective force.
Community Impact
- Direct economic impact of more than $900 million through payroll, procurements, utilities and taxes and an indirect economic impact of $4 billion per year.
- Contributes more than hundreds of thousands annually to nearly 100 charitable organizations. Employees donate thousands of hours of volunteer service for projects such as refurbishing sites in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, working with the homeless, and supporting dozens of charitable community endeavors.
- One of the top four manufacturing employers in the state.
- Supported Tennessee economic development initiatives, to include the Technology Corridor Summit, Technology 2020, and the East Tennessee Economic Council.
- Contributed to colleges and universities through employee and matching corporate contributions, and to area schools for equipment and supplemental classroom resources.
- Donated more than $1 million to Oak Ridge Schools Education Foundation to support the renovation of Oak Ridge High School.
- Created a permanent endowment for an engineering scholarship at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
