September 9 – The Y-12 National Security Complex recently finished building the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility (HEUMF). This is a major milestone because it is the largest construction project that Oak Ridge has undertaken in more than 40 years and its completion will enable operations to begin to ramp up. 

“As the Uranium Center of Excellence, Y-12 is leading NNSA in bringing our nuclear weapons complex into the 21st century,” said Congressman Zach Wamp. “HEUMF is a major centerpiece of a larger effort to modernize our complex and represents the most drastic change to the Y-12 landscape in more than 50 years.” 

The HEUMF will replace several aging facilities at Oak Ridge with a single state-of-the-art storage facility to better help the National Nuclear Security Administration protect the country’s inventory of highly enriched uranium (HEU). It will be a modern facility for receiving, shipping and providing long-term storage of HEU in specially designed storage racks. HEUMF is the first of two facilities with a joint mission to store and process all enriched uranium in centralized area. 

Upon reaching this construction milestone, the Y-12 management and operating contractor, B&W Y-12 Technical Services, will now begin testing a number of HEUMF systems. Then following a period of contractor and federal readiness reviews, operations are expected to begin in 2010. 

“By consolidating HEU to a smaller footprint that is more secure and cost-effective, the HEUMF will be an example for moving from the Cold War-era into the future right here at Y-12,” said Congressman Wamp.