Y-12 Blog
For generations of students, lunchtime has been a favorite part of the school day. For a group of students at Oak Ridge High School in Tennessee, however, the midday break took a back seat to cybersecurity sleuthing.
“I could sit for hours working puzzles, not stopping for anything, and a computer is just a big puzzle,” said Elizabeth, an ORHS junior and participant in a summer cybercamp sponsored, in part, by the Y-12 National Security Complex.
“I actually had to require students to leave their computers to eat lunch,” said Y-12’s Mike Hylton, who conducted the weeklong camp for 11 ORHS students.
Hylton, an instrumentation and controls design engineer in Y-12’s Cat 2 Design group, coached students in computer-based scenarios designed to teach fundamentals of computer networks, encryption, and cybersecurity. The Air Force Association’s Youth Cyber Education Program provided the curriculum materials.
“The program helps expose students to a basic awareness of how cybersecurity affects all of us in our everyday lives,” Hylton said. “It helps develop an interest in cybersecurity and other computer fields that are needed at Y-12 and in almost every government agency across the country.”
Campers worked in teams to find and correct vulnerabilities in operating systems of a fictitious company. They checked user passwords, files, software, and accounts for compliance with the company’s security policies and protected computers against viruses and hacking threats. The teams scored points for every vulnerability they corrected.
“I tried to make my computer as unhackable as possible,” said Elizabeth, who wants to become a cyberwarfare engineer for the Navy. “It was fun getting lost in the numbers behind what you see on the screen.”
Fellow camper Justin, a senior, said learning how computer systems work from the inside out makes him less vulnerable to being duped. “There are plenty of scams and cyberattacks out there,” he said. “The more you know, the better prepared you are.”
Hylton agreed. “It’s important to have basic knowledge of how our electronic information is transferred and shared, both intentionally and unintentionally,” he said. “We are at the point where it is almost impossible to function in a connected world without a great deal of information changing hands.”
Y-12 sponsors the camp as part of its educational outreach efforts to develop the science, technology, engineering, and math skills the site needs to fulfill its National Nuclear Security Administration mission.
Oak Ridge High School students Elizabeth and Thomas work together on a training scenario to secure a company’s operating system.
Pantex Honor Guard members Jeremy Baker (left), Chris Lewis (second from left), and Bobby Nash (far right) train the newly formed Y-12 Fire Department Honor Guard whose members include (starting third from left): Ben Norton, Doug Allen, Joe Herrell, Brandon Hitchcock, Lee Scofield, Jonathan Rood, Craig Shaver, Josh Bray and Bob Strunk.
Members of the Pantex Honor Guard visited Y-12 in June to train their fellow firefighters.
“We received approval to form an honor guard, and we decided who better to train us than our fellow coworkers,” Assistant Chief Mari-Kaye Monday said. “Pantex’s Honor Guard was established in 2011.”
Three Pantex members conducted a week of training with the 10 members of the newly formed Y-12 Fire Department Honor Guard.
“We wanted to ensure we were ready to serve as a color guard or perform a variety of events, such as opening ceremonies, parades and funeral services for fallen fire and emergency services members,” she said.
Monday said their team has worked for years to establish an honor guard within the Y-12 Fire Department. “It is the mission of the fire service honor guard to exemplify honor, respect, and dignity while embracing fire service tradition. We’re continuing the pursuit of excellence by establishing the honor guard, and the Y-12 Fire Department is striving to exhibit pride, professionalism, and teamwork to represent CNS.”
Watch this video to learn more.
Members of the CNS W80-4 Life Extension Program recently received an NNSA Defense Programs Award of Excellence.
It’s a busy time in the modernization world at Pantex and Y-12 as employees continue working on the B61-12, W88 Alt 370 and W80-4. The W80-4 Life Extension Program (LEP), is a long-range standoff cruise missile that will be used by the U.S. Air Force in the bomber leg of the nuclear triad. Pantexans and Y-12ers are working to refurbish, reuse or replace the warheads’ nuclear and non-nuclear components to extend the service life of the warhead for an additional 30 years while improving its safety, effectiveness, and security.
This level of work has not been seen across the Nuclear Security Enterprise in more than 30 years and will require close coordination and integration with all involved to effectively and efficiently ensure all milestones and deliverables are met.
The Pantex team is working to produce, formulate, and qualify two new insensitive high explosive material streams for the LEP. To meet this challenge, they are working with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Holston Army Ammunition Plant to develop and qualify new IHE material.
Working with older infrastructure and tooling is another challenge for both Pantex and Y-12. The legacy tooling was not designed to the tighter assembly, so that requires all of the tooling supporting operations on this program to be re-designed, prototyped and put in place.
At Y-12, they are appreciating a new approach the nuclear design agency has taken to meeting design requirements. Previously, Y-12 had to rely on reused and partially rebuilt components as there are significant challenges in making all new components. However, the design agency, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is simplifying where possible, taking advantage of additional reuse opportunities, and working as a real partner to minimize burdens on existing Y-12 capabilities.
There have been challenges with this LEP, such as compressing the schedule by two years, but there have also been successes. Those successes earned the Pantex and Y-12 W80-4 teams an NNSA Defense Programs Award of Excellence.
Obviously, working on three LEPs at one time will present competing priorities and challenges for Pantex and Y-12. With teams like these, the sites are well positioned to be more efficient. It is imperative because the nation requires it.
Paul Wasilko explains Y-12’s mission work and history during a Secret City tour.
The rain didn’t keep people from participating in the Secret City tours at Y-12 on the morning of June 7 nor did it keep employees and their children from attending Bring Your Children to Work Day that afternoon. About 550 people were registered for both events.
The morning tours included a brief history of Y-12 and information on current work. Communications’ Eric Swanson often gives these public tours. “It’s important for the public to understand our role in national security over the last 75 years and to see the things we’re doing today to position the site for another 75 years of service,” he said.
Ben Green of Y-12 Development was on hand with a 3-D printer. “Events like the Bring your Children to Work day, Introduce a Girl to Engineering, and STEM events at local schools are a great opportunity to expose a variety of individuals to engineering and get them excited about the broad potential associated with gaining a degree in an engineering field,” Green said.
Other areas showcased included Sustainability and Stewardship, LiveWise, Y-12 Fire Department, and Security. Children also had opportunity to complete a STEM activity.
A father and daughter participate in some of the hands-on activities at Bring Your Children to Work Day. 
Getting some hands-on experience with some personal protective equipment. 
Learning about Y-12 while viewing the exhibits at New Hope Center. 
UPF Ironworker Robert Burchfield was chosen as Local 384’s Apprentice of the Year and represented the local union at the 30th Annual Outstanding Apprentice of the Year Competition in Atlanta, Georgia.
Uranium Processing Facility Ironworker Robert Burchfield was chosen as the Apprentice of the Year from Ironworkers Local 384. He represented the local union in the Ironworkers District Council of the Southeastern States 30th Annual Outstanding Apprentice of the Year Competition during June in Atlanta.
Ironworkers 384, based in Knoxville, represents union members from parts of Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Fourteen apprentices participated in the two-day competition that tested their abilities in seven skill areas including welding, climbing a column, tying rebar, and rigging. The competition is a way to recognize outstanding apprentices and is an opportunity for them to get to know each other. The apprentices visited the Atlanta training center to see how ironworkers there learned some of their techniques.
“One cool part was we all brought a t-shirt from our local union and exchanged them with the other guys,” Burchfield said.
Awards were given in multiple categories. Burchfield won third place in tying rebar.
“We do a lot of that at UPF,” he said.
Burchfield has worked at UPF as an apprentice for 14 months. Every few months during the three-year apprentice program, apprentices attend specialized training classes to learn core ironworker skills like rebar, rigging, scaffolding, and welding. This is combined with on-the-job training. Burchfield started his apprenticeship in August 2017 and has about a year left to complete before he becomes a journeyman.
This is the third year in a row that Local 384 has sent an apprentice to compete. Burchfield was nominated by his training coordinator based on reports from work and observations from his training classes.
“It’s an honor to be chosen,” Burchfield said.