Y-12 Blog
The Mechanical Electrical Building (MEB) at the Uranium Processing Facility is now “dried in”. This milestone includes installation of all siding, doors, roof, and louvers, and completion of underground utility work on the east and north side of the MEB.
The Mechanical Electrical Building (MEB) at the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) is fully enclosed and stands tall as a sign of completion amongst ongoing work areas surrounding the building. Not only was it the first main building to go vertical at UPF, it is now the first building fully enclosed and moving to the next stage of progress, which includes installation of commodities and equipment.
The shell, which includes all siding, doors, roof, and louvers, was constructed in just 310 calendar days, and is an example of why a multiple-building complex approach was used at UPF. It allows each facility to be constructed to the safety and security requirements appropriate to each building’s function. The MEB will house most of the utility equipment required for the UPF process facilities, so it was constructed to commercial standards, providing cost savings in construction and equipment installation.
“The MEB ‘in the dry’ milestone is a major accomplishment for the UPF project team,” said MEB Area Manager Misty Lawrence. “This milestone was achieved by the hard work and long hours of many individuals working together to make it possible. As we have developed lessons learned for the other UPF subprojects, we have also shown what a team can accomplish when we have a goal and work collaboratively to make it a reality.”
The next steps for MEB will be “kitting out” the building. It will be a heavy organization effort in order to complete miscellaneous steel installation; electrical installation; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning placement; fire protection; fire proofing and bulk commodity installations (i.e., spools, hangers, and valves).
The first pieces of structural steel were installed at the Salvage and Accountability Building, marking a major milestone in the construction of the three-stories-tall building.
The first pieces of structural steel were installed at the Uranium Processing Facility Project’s Salvage and Accountability Building (SAB). The project team placed the building’s first four columns and four cross beams in May.
“Placing the first pieces of structural steel is a significant milestone for the project,” said SAB Federal Project Director Don Peters. “It is a visible symbol that communicates to everyone that the SAB is entering the next major phase of work. Moving forward over the next few months, all the team’s planning, preparation, and hard work will become even more noticeable as we see the building take shape.”
The steel columns currently being installed are about 60 feet tall and weigh between 10.5 and 12.5 tons each. The first phase of structural steel installation will continue over the summer and calls for almost 800 pieces that collectively weigh about 1,500 tons. The steel will be installed in rows from south to north, progressing across the building from east to west. When sufficient steel pieces have been installed, work on the second floor will begin.
At 127,000 square-feet, the three-story SAB footprint is approximately the size of one football field. It is designed to recover production chemicals and process non-destructive assays, contaminated items, and waste.
Fabric is added onto the steel frame to construct the 100,000 square foot facility that will serve as the primary fabrication area during the construction of UPF.
Construction has begun on the Offsite Fabrication Facility located at the East TN Technology Park. This 100,000-square-foot facility will serve as the primary fabrication area during the construction of the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF).
The Offsite Fabrication Facility will be equipped with common fabrication equipment like shears and drill presses, and include fully-outfitted welding booths, grinding booths, a paint booth, and mobile gantry cranes.
“This structure will be important throughout the construction of UPF,” said Brian Tevis, a UPF Construction manager. “Material and equipment will be brought into the facility to allow craft employees to prepare, fabricate, and install necessary materials and equipment to complete modules, racks, skids, or glove boxes.”
Y-12ers tour the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Chattanooga, which generated ideas such as increasing awareness of customer requirements and improving visual management and inventory systems.
Product delivery is dominated by Amazon, which ships an average of 608 million packages each year. So if you want to improving delivery and inventory control, watching operations at an Amazon Fulfillment Center is a good place to start.
Recently, a Y-12 cross-functional team visited the Chattanooga fulfillment center to benchmark best practices and to learn about innovations in warehousing and transportation.
“Amazon has some sophisticated algorithms, but the predominant tool was barcodes and barcode readers. We use barcodes and barcode readers at our sites, so this showed me that there is still a lot we can do with the tools we have,” said Reed Mullins, Production Operations director.
The team was able to follow the path from when products enter the center until they ship. While Amazon uses advanced automation in its fulfillment centers, tour participants observed that they also employ surprising storage practices for quick and efficient supply chain management. They rely on sophisticated computer systems to manage their inventory, but smaller, unrelated items are stored randomly for more efficient “picking” by employees.
Amazon fosters a mindset of “start with the customer and work backwards.” They ask the questions: What do they want? What do they need? What can I do to make the next operation better?
“It’s these simple questions that we can ask ourselves each day that invokes change and best practices. The team plans to use these observations to challenge the way we think about delivery and inventory control of items here at Y‑12,” said Paula Goins, program manager for Materials Stewardship. “For example, I was not expecting to see small items stored in random places, but, after it was explained, it makes perfect sense for their operations,” Goins said.
There are 1,500 new faces at CNS, and they all arrived in 2018.
Last year CNS was busy building the workforce for the future at Pantex and Y-12. Recruiting the next generation of professionals to support national security is one of the top priorities for the Nuclear Security Enterprise.
In total between Pantex and Y‑12, 1,500 employees were hired in calendar year 2018. This influx of personnel adds to our talented and diverse workforce and ensures critical skills and knowledge are maintained and transferred to continually support our important mission.
Who are all the new hires?
Mission Engineering, Operations Support, and the Uranium Processing Facility project saw the biggest personnel increases across both sites to account for attrition and work demand. Employees spanned experience levels from new graduates, to experienced senior individuals, to construction hires.
“The influx of new talent bolstered our ability to support increased project execution, implement new or restarted mission capabilities, and begin to dent long‑standing backlog activities,” explained Ken Keith, Mission Engineering senior director.
More than 400 skilled craftspersons and professionals joined the UPF project in 2018 as the first wave of construction hiring. The project will continue to hire throughout fiscal year 2019, peaking at about 2,200 craftspersons and professionals in 2020.
Come work for us
If you’re interested in working for CNS, you’ll find us at job fairs and hiring conferences. In 2018, CNS representatives attended 35 job fairs or hiring conferences across the country. We also hosted 47 summer interns, bringing 20 on as full-time employees. Watch our social media accounts to see when we’ll be in your area.