Managing the Disposition of Y-12 Legacy Classified Items

The Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12) has generated and retained a large inventory of non-special nuclear material (non-SNM) classified items. The inventory grew over several decades as a result of technological progress and changes in Y-12 missions and national security needs. The inventory includes classified weapon parts, tooling, containers, molds, and other accountable and non-accountable material. Much of this inventory of legacy non-SNM classified items is no longer needed to support current or future missions at Y-12. In January 2004, the Y-12 management and operations contractor, Babcock and Wilcox Technical ServicesY-12, LLC (B&W Y-12), adopted an initiative to disposition the excess inventory utilizing funds provided by appropriate National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) programs. This initiative supports Y-12’s overall strategic vision to transform the World War II-era buildings and infrastructure into a safer, more modern and efficient enterprise, “right-sized” for Y-12’s future missions. Disposition of excess classified items reduces the storage footprint and number of facilities in which materials are stored, releasing those facilities for alternative uses or final demolition. Shrinking the storage footprint reduces surveillance and maintenance costs in older facilities, and security-related costs for protection of the materials themselves, freeing up funding for high priority facility and infrastructure improvements. Retaining only the classified item inventory needed to support ongoing missions minimizes the need to construct additional, compliant storage facilities in the future. B&W Y-12 management also issued a site-wide policy in 2005 requiring programs to fund life-cycle management for the classified items generated by current and future programs to avoid future accumulation of unneeded, legacy material.