Retired Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, the DOE undersecretary for nuclear security and NNSA administrator, addresses on Thursday the Tennessee Valley Corridor 2014 National Summit hosted at UTC’s University Center.A decade after military planners began its design, the largest construction project in Tennessee is starting over with a new and different layout.
The Department of Energy’s Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge has been revamped to help reduce its escalating costs by more than a third.
But the head of the federal agency building the proposed $6.5 billion complex said Thursday the project is still needed to upgrade the aging Y-12 weapons plant and the project should still spur business across the Tennessee Valley as it is built in the next decade.
Retired Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, a Department of Energy undersecretary who heads the National Nuclear Security Administration, said one part of the Oak Ridge facility, Building 9212, is more than 60 years old.
“There are a lot of concerns about the safety and functionality of structures that old,” Klotz said after visiting Y-12 this week.