Y-12 Blog
Tyler McClary (left) shares with Colby Yeary about participating in the WIP.
Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) once again has two employees participating in the Sandia National Laboratories Weapon Intern Program (WIP): Tyler McClary, Mission Engineering, and Brandon Pehrson, Y‑12 Operations. This highly sought-after internship teaches the technical details of weapon systems and provides site interactions that provide a comprehensive picture of the Nuclear Security Enterprise. Following that education, the interns work on a project with enterprise and personal value.
Both are looking forward to being a member of the WIP Class of 2017. “I hope to use the knowledge I gain to better serve the needs of Pantex,” said McClary, who has been a Pantexan for almost five years and is a lead design engineer in Tooling & Tester Design.
Pehrson, a production specialist and Y‑12 employee for 11 years, said, “I want to learn more about the weapons parts and material function so I can understand impacts of changes. I also want to become an expert in the weapons field.”
Colby Yeary and Eva Irwin of Program Integration, the CNS contacts for the program, realize there are many advantages for having Pantex and Y‑12 representatives participate.
Yeary said, “Our representatives provide a perspective from two key production agencies in the Nuclear Security Enterprise. Tyler and Brandon’s perspectives, and those of past participants, offer production agency considerations that can be overlooked in important nuclear weapon product realization activities.”
There are many benefits to the rigorous program. The first six months includes classroom work with site visits and research assignments. During the final five months, participants are embedded in various organizations across Sandia to work on specific projects.
“The interns are considered high potential and are able to develop and learn about the enterprise in an accelerated manner,” Yeary said. “It took me the better part of a decade to get the exposure and knowledge they will receive in less than a year.”
HaliAnne Crawford and Aaron Lee, the CNS representatives in the WIP Class of 2016B, offered advice to McClary and Pehrson. (During 2016, WIP had two classes.)
“No matter how daunting the next 11 months seem,” Lee said, “just jump in with both feet first as soon as possible. You have a limited time to learn as much as you can about a topic that is truly vast. Don’t waste a moment of the next 11 months because it will fly by.”
Crawford echoed Lee’s sentiment. “My advice is to get involved with the program, both inside and outside the classroom. Don’t be a passive participant. You will be learning from some of the greatest minds in our industry; ask questions and don’t be afraid to think outside the box.
“You will find that your classmates are some of the most brilliant individuals you will ever have the pleasure of working with,” Crawford said. “Get to know them, learn from their experiences and leverage their knowledge and abilities whenever possible. This year will be one of the best of your life. Enjoy every single second of it.”
Lee agreed: “Listen to your classmates. They will have just as much to teach you as the instructors do. Members of my class represented almost every other site within the NSE as well as NNSA and the military. They had knowledge and perspectives on certain topics that were completely different from my own due to their own different experiences. Everyone brought unique experiences to the program and had a lot of knowledge to share with the class.”
After the internship, WIP participants return to their respective sites to continue their leadership journeys. Yeary said, “The WIP prepares today’s workforce as tomorrow’s leaders by rapidly providing a holistic, yet reasonably detailed view of the nuclear weapons business. The program helps candidates connect dots to see the ‘big picture’ — an important attribute of senior leadership.”
Vietnam veteran Ralph Adcox (far right) is happy to see his fellow veterans get a chance to have closure.
It was a good night when 73 year old Daniel Campbell finally got a solid night’s rest. For years, his sleep was interrupted by images nearly half a century old — images of death and horror in Vietnam.
“I lost my best friend in Vietnam,” Campbell said. “And I was wounded, too. For years afterward, I couldn’t sleep because I kept seeing those images. They were terrible.”
Now, Campbell said, things have changed, and they changed because of a trip he took with fellow Vietnam veterans on HonorAir Knoxville. HonorAir has flown more than 2800 East Tennessee veterans, at no cost to them, to Washington, D.C., to see the memorials built to honor their sacrifices.
“I was able to find my friend on the Vietnam War Memorial wall,” he said. He traced his friend’s name to paper and now has that keepsake. He also has another new memory. One that he says brought closure to his Vietnam experience.
“The reception at McGhee Tyson Airport,” said Campbell. “It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life. It brought tears to my eyes and closure to my heart to see all those people waving American flags and thanking me for my service.”
Among those in the crowd was first timer Ralph Adcox of Safety & Industrial Hygiene. Adcox was with other Y-12 workers who regularly attend these homecomings.
Adcox has extra motivation to be there. He is a former Vietnam veteran and recalls the political turmoil and protests over the war in the 1960s.
“As a veteran, I felt it was important that fellow Vietnam vets get the long deserved ‘welcome home’ they did not get upon returning from their deployment,” said Adcox.
The trip and reception home was emotional for Campbell, and Adcox said it was emotional for him.
“Some of us enlisted, and some were drafted. Regardless, all of us took an oath and served the call of our country to the best of our ability,” Adcox said. “Being in a hostile zone requires the respect and support for our fellow soldier, sailor, airman, marine, and coast guardsman to survive. All those branches of the military were represented in the welcome home celebration, and I am proud to have taken part.”
HonorAir Knoxville was one of 30 non profit organizations that received a Y-12 Community Investment Fund grant this year.
CNS welcomes summer interns
This summer, 26 college students worked at Consolidated Nuclear Security and participated in professional development, science and engineering lectures, networking events, and social activities with mentors and peers. The 2016 interns represented 16 universities from across the country and are pursuing degrees in mechanical, electrical, nuclear, and chemical engineering, as well as physics, optics, information technology, and math.
Ashley Stowe of Mission Engineering said the interns “are bright, hardworking and fun to interact with. They have accomplished a lot this summer. I am excited that we were able to host six interns at Pantex this summer and look forward to growing the CNS intern program further next summer.” (The six Pantex interns don’t include the two West Point cadets who also spent time at Pantex.)
CNS Student Interns Program Manager Rachel Winningham agreed. “Going forward, I would like to expand the program by providing co-op opportunities and having interns across more organizations.”
Whether they were a Pantexan or a Y-12er, one thing was certain: The interns return to college with a unique experience and the employees with whom they interacted take away something too.
Winningham said, “When you’re around the interns (even for a short timeframe), their energy rubs off on you. I want them to walk away from the internship with newly acquired skillsets, meaningful work assignments to put on their resume, and the opportunity to have networked with other interns and employees.”
Y‑12 environmental compliance manager Terry Cothron won the NNSA Sustainability Award in the Change Agent category.
Terry Cothron is considered one of the founding fathers of the environmental program at Y-12. This year, his tremendous efforts were acknowledged as he received the change agent award as part of the NNSA Sustainability Awards.
The change agent award recognizes individuals who take the initiative to foster behavior change in their immediate work environment, organization or site. Cothron, an environmental compliance manager, was also named a Sustainability Superstar by DOE’s Sustainability Performance Office in its May DOE Sustainability SPOlight newsletter.
“For the past 26 years, Terry Cothron has helped to create a renaissance in modernization and environmental improvement at Y-12 National Security Complex, and the Oak Ridge Reservation,” the newsletter article said. “As evidence of Terry’s leadership skills and commitment to sustainability, Y‑12 removed mountains of legacy materials, constructed modern sustainable buildings and developed award-winning environmental programs.
“Change agents are merely catalysts,” Cothron said. “The changes are effected by the people who work every day to see that the change results in a cleaner, better environment.” The NNSA release announcing the award cited Cothron’s “integral” role in securing approval to build two modern buildings — New Hope Center and Jack Case Center — to the standards of Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, or LEED.
Jane Nations accepts one of her two NNSA Excellence Awards from James McConnell associate administrator for Safety, Infrastructure and Operations.
During his visit to Y‑12 on June 7, McConnell presented Excellence Awards to Dwain Coppenger, Melanie Dillon and Jane Nations for their work on the NNSA BUILDER implementation initiative. Nations was given an Excellence Award for her work on the CRISP Deferred Maintenance Team.
BUILDER is NNSA’s new infrastructure management software tool. The CRISP Deferred Maintenance Team provided valuable guidance on how NNSA could improve what is reported as deferred maintenance for more than 6,000 assets across eight sites.
Melanie Dillon accepts the NNSA Excellence Award from James McConnell.
Dwain Coppenger (right) accepts the NNSA Excellence Award from James McConnell.