United States Senator Lamar Alexander said Wednesday that the government funding bill provides a big chunk of change for the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.
The facility could get $663 million to go towards what's considered one of the largest construction sites in the country with an overall budget of $6.5 billion. And — it's not scheduled to be completed until 2025, according to the DOE website.
The DOE said it's using a “build-to-budget” strategy. The National Nuclear Security Administration has committed to Congress to provide these facilities in order to phase out mission dependency on Building 9212.
UPF will be built through a series of seven subprojects (click for info):
- Site Readiness—complete—on time and under budget
- Site Infrastructure and Services—complete—on time and under budget
- Substation—underway
- Mechanical Electrical Building—underway
- Process Support Facilities
- Salvage and Accountability Building
- Main Process Building
The Department of Energy has said the new facility will improve worker safety, reduce operational costs and energy consumption and allow more efficient mission delivery.
"Generous funding for this project shows how much Congress recognizes Oak Ridge’s contributions to our country’s national security and economic future,” Alexander said. “This bill also includes record funding levels for our nuclear weapons programs -- President Trump has said we should modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal, and I agree."
According to Alexander, the bill includes $14.7 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, including $4 billion to continue the four ongoing life extension programs, which fix or replace components in nuclear weapons systems to make sure they're safe and reliable.
It also provides $639 million for cleanup of former Cold War sites in Oak Ridge and $17.1 million for the Outfall 200 mercury treatment facility, Alexander said.
"The funding supports vital investments in a new mercury treatment facility -- also known as Outfall 200 -- which will help reduce the amount of mercury getting into Tennessee waterways to safe levels and make it possible for cleanup work at Y-12 to continue which supports thousands of jobs.”