Bechtel Praises Completion of First Step toward Building Vital National Security Facility

Bechtel leaders joined U.S. government officials to mark completion of site readiness work at a key National Nuclear Security Administration site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee — the first step toward the start of construction on the nation’s new facility to safely and securely process uranium for nuclear defense, naval propulsion, and other applications. The Uranium Processing Facility Site Readiness Project was completed on time, $20 million under budget, and surpassed 600 days without a recordable accident or injury.

Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC teamed with NNSA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to manage and complete earthwork, bridge and road construction, site facility demolition, contaminated debris removal, electrical and piping rerouting, and installation of storm water management features at the future UPF site, located at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

“The new UPF is vital to the nation’s nuclear security,” said Brian Reilly, UPF project director. “It will replace 70-year old facilities with a set of modern buildings designed and constructed to today’s safety and security standards. The completion of this early project is a great example of cooperation and a major step toward UPF construction.”

At an estimated $6.5 billion, UPF is the Department of Energy’s largest investment in Tennessee since the Manhattan Project and NNSA’s largest-ever construction project. It will be a multi-building, state of the art complex for enriched uranium operations related to nuclear security including assembly, disassembly, dismantlement, quality evaluation, and product certification. Construction will require an estimated $1.8 billion in goods and services with about 2,400 jobs at peak and an estimated 8,000 supporting jobs in the surrounding community.  Completion of UPF design and construction is contracted to Bechtel’s U.S. government services company.

Work scheduled for this year includes detailed design engineering, demolition of unused site facilities, installation of a construction support facility, procurement of long lead items, and a concrete batch plant. When complete, UPF will support U.S. policy to reduce the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons while ensuring the remaining weapons are safe, secure, and effective in the absence of full-scale testing.

Bechtel’s government services in the U.S. includes a broad spectrum of nuclear security, defense, and operations at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, in a consolidated contract under CNS; and with the University of California and industrial partners at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national security laboratories in New Mexico and California. Additionally, Bechtel is completing construction and testing at plants in Kentucky and Colorado to destroy the remaining U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons.

Learn more:

• Uranium Processing Facility information page
• NNSA press release