Bechtel and Lockheed Martin team wins Y-12/Pantex contract

From Knoxnews.com



A team headed by Bechtel and Lockheed Martin has been selected to manage two of the nation's key nuclear weapons facilities -- Y-12 in Oak Ridge and Pantex near Amarillo, Texas, according to multiple sources familiar with the pending announcement.

The new contractor will be called Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, a part of the U.S. Department of Energy, is expected to make the official announcement today and tout the potential savings to the government by consolidating management of the two production plants, even though they are in different states and 1,000 miles apart.

The team selected for the job has a ton of experience in the DOE contracting world, and both Bechtel and Lockheed Martin have deep roots in Oak Ridge. ATK, a defense and aerospace company with headquarters in Virginia, is also part of the winning team.

Bechtel currently shares the management role at Y-12 in a partnership with Babcock & Wilcox, B&W Y-12 LLC, which has held the Oak Ridge contract since 2000. Bechtel also has been involved in the partnership that manages Pantex, where nuclear warheads undergo their final assembly and their initial disassembly after being retired from the arsenal.

Lockheed Martin (or its predecessor Martin Marietta) managed Y-12 for 16 years, 1984-2000.

The announcement culminates years of study and a procurement process that took about two years. Competing teams reportedly spent millions of dollars to prepare their proposals -- and update them on multiple occasions to meet changing requirements -- for managing national security facilities that form the production base for the nation's nuclear deterrent.