Current Status
Today, Y-12's primary missions are to support defense needs through stockpile stewardship, assist on issues of nuclear non-proliferation, support the Naval Reactors program, and provide expertise to other federal agencies. Y-12 is also responsible for the maintenance and production of all uranium parts for every nuclear weapon in the US arsenal. Y-12 is responsible for the production and maintenance of the "secondary" aspect of thermonuclear devices.
Y-12 has a history of providing secure storage of nuclear material for both the United States and other governments. Early efforts focused on securing material from the former Soviet Union; recent activities have included recovery of highly enriched uranium from Chile.
Environmental cleanup has been an ongoing issue for the Department of Energy in Oak Ridge. The Y-12 plant was listed as an EPA Superfund site in the 1990s for groundwater and soil contamination. Today, the Y-12 plant is listed on the DOE's Cleanup Criteria/Decision Document Database (or C2D2 database).
An influx of funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has benefited cleanup efforts by funding demolition and decontamination of aging facilities. These efforts work to further the long term reduction in the size of the Y-12 facility.
B&W Y-12 currently employs approximately 4,700 people. About 1,500 additional personnel work onsite as employees of organizations that include UT-Battelle, Science Applications International Corporation, Bechtel Jacobs, and WSI Oak Ridge (an American-controlled unit of the Wackenhut Corporation), which holds the security contract for the site.
Read more about this topic: Y-12 National Security Complex
Famous quotes containing the words current and/or status:
“We hear the haunting presentiment of a dutiful middle age in the current reluctance of young people to select any option except the one they feel will impinge upon them the least.”
—Gail Sheehy (b. 1937)
“The censorship method ... is that of handing the job over to some frail and erring mortal man, and making him omnipotent on the assumption that his official status will make him infallible and omniscient.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)