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UPF redesign chalks up benefits

The preliminary design for Y‑12's next major manufacturing structure, the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF), was well in hand by December 2008. Then came word of a new opportunity to refine the project's approach to security and significantly affect the plan. The project schedule did not allow much time for a redesign—only about 6 weeks, including the season's holidays.

Despite the tight deadline, the integrated design team seized the opportunity to reconsider the building and process layouts as well as security-related design changes. The resulting modifications generated a smaller, simplified building that expands flexibility while saving money and materials.

“Everyone was driving to get this done on time,” said Rebecca Spiva, the UPF facilities project engineer. “If anyone had blinked, the redesign would not have happened.”

Part of the savings came through sharing equipment. Duplicate equipment was removed, and some proposed capital equipment was eliminated. Other savings arose from completely revamping the building floor plan and layout to reduce needed construction materials and shorten utility runs while making processes easier to operate.

“What a new facility should look like is a moving target early on,” said Bill Zulliger, UPF engineering manager. The team expects that the time spent in redesign now will mean less time spent on the final design.

The design and costs continue to evolve, but some of the savings include

• 492,000 yd³ of excavation and backfill—enough to fill a football field more than 275 ft deep.

• 54,600 yd³ of concrete—enough to build a 5-foot-wide sidewalk from Oak Ridge to Nashville, Tenn., a distance of about 180 miles.

• 359 tons of structural steel—about 18 tractor-trailer loads.

As the greatly needed replacement for aged facilities, UPF is central to NNSA's ongoing missions. According to NNSA Administrator Tom D'Agostino, “The capability is going to be needed whether we have a stockpile of zero weapons or a stockpile of thousands of weapons.”

Seeing is creating. The 3-D Visualization Center allows UPF's designers to step inside the new facility's layout and operations. A high-definition screen measuring 14 ft wide by 6 ft tall allows users to manipulate and test models of the facility and process equipment, creating a virtual factory. The 3-D center stays busy with project reviews, vulnerability analyses, value engineering, virtual training and similar activities.

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