Nuclear facilitiesY-12 Nuclear Complex’s uranium processing facility to be redesigned
Weeks after the inadequacy of security measures at the Y-12 Nuclear Complex came to light — an 82-year old nun and her two senior citizen colleagues eluded the facility’s fences and security to spend a few hours on the site’s grounds and spray-paint anti-nuclear slogans on its walls – criticism is directed at the design shortcomings of a new uranium processing facility; among other things, the roof of the new facility will have to be raised by thirteen feet because the designers did not take into account the size of the equipment the new facility will house
The entry to the Y-12 uranium facility in Oak Ridge, TN // Source: doe.gov
In July, Megan Rice, and 82-year old nun, and two others broke into the Y-12 Nuclear Complex uranium processing plant in Oak Ridge Tennessee, spray painting anti-war slogans and milling about for several hours before being stopped by a lone security guard (the Y-12 nuclear complex is not related to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory [ONRL}, also located in Oak Ridge). The plant’s operator, Babcock & Wilcox, and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) drew scathing criticism over the safety measures in a facility performing one of the U.S. critical nuclear functions. Now the NNSA is drawing more criticism as officials have found out that the facility being built to store the uranium has to be remodeled due to significant design flaws.
WBIR reports that earlier this week the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) held a public meeting at the Knoxville Convention Center to question Y-12 officials about a long list of design flaws and organizational failures in the planning of the new Uranium Processing Facility (UPF).
The UPF is costing an estimated $6.5 billion, making it one of the most expensive building projects in Tennessee history and ten times the cost of its sister building, the completed Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility (HEUMF). The UPF (340,000 square feet) is a much larger facility than the HEUMF.
The UPF is a replacement for the aging infrastructure that currently handles the U.S. bomb grade uranium. The older structures that held the uranium no longer meet safety standards for natural disasters such as earthquakes.
Y-12 officials told members at the meeting that $500 million has already been spent on the project as they have spent the last few years on designs for the new facility, but they also admitted that the facility will have to be redesigned because of inadequate space and a lack of safety plans.
WBIR notes that the “inadequacies in the integration of safety into the design” for a building that will handle some of the most dangerous material in the world did not stop the UPF Project Team from continuing and completing 73 percent of the final design according to the DNFSB.
Most of that work will have to be redone in order to address design issues as the equipment needed to process the uranium cannot fit inside the latest UPF structure. In order to fit the equipment, the roof has to be raised about thirteen feet, although the size of the equipment has not changed since plans for the UPF began years ago.
In addition to the ceiling being too low, the walls of the building are not thick enough. The foundation has to be bolstered by an additional foot of concrete and the wall needs to be a foot thicker than planned.
The changes in the design will likely cost taxpayers millions of dollars, although Y-12 officials admit they do not know the exact amount. A new evaluation by engineers should be complete in a few weeks, after which officials will have a better idea of how much time and money will be needed to finish the project.
