Pantex handoff set for Tuesday

A new Pantex Plant contractor will take over the Energy Department nuclear weapons plant Tuesday in an era of cost-cutting, but the plant's employment levels should remain stable after the changeover, officials said.

Earlier this year, the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog agency, rejected a third contract protest filed by Nuclear Production Partners LLC, a group created by incumbent contractor Babcock & Wilcox to pursue the multibillion-dollar contract for Pantex and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee.

Nuclear Production Partners didn't challenge the GAO's decision, paving the way for Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC to begin its transition as the National Nuclear Security Administration's new management and operations contractor at both sites. To land the highly lucrative $22 billion contract, Consolidated offered $3.27 billion in cost savings to the government over a 10-year period.

Pantex, located 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, assembles, dismantles, modifies and maintains nuclear weapons for the U.S. atomic arsenal. The plant also stores tons of plutonium weapons cores from dismantled weapons.

Frank Klotz, a retired Air Force general who now serves as NNSA administrator, said Pantex workforce numbers shouldn't fluctuate much in the near future.

"The workforce here at Pantex is about 3,100-plus, and we don't anticipate major changes one way or the other," Klotz said in an interview.

"Both the incumbent and the incoming contractor, I think, are at the place they want to be in terms of employees as the transition takes place," Klotz said.

Contractor changes often bring uncertainty to the workforce, but Klotz said much of that should be alleviated now that most workers have accepted job offers with Consolidated.

"I think a lot of that uncertainty has been retired as individual employees have received their offers of work and they've been able to see what the benefits package looks like," Klotz said.

Consolidated spokesman Jason Bohne said some employees have left the plant and others accepted buyouts through a voluntary separation program. About 275 workers were eligible for the program, and 21 volunteered for and accepted the buyout.

"In addition, 20 additional employees declined their offer of employment from CNS. We didn't ask employees to identify the reasons they declined, but we understand that most chose to retire or pursue other interests outside the plant," Bohne said. "The voluntary separation program included employees primarily from business support areas where redundancies were created from the consolidation of the two sites. The remaining employees who declined offers come from a broad cross-section of the site."

Bohne said a "handful" of senior B&W Pantex managers, including B&W Pantex President and General Manager John Woolery, have left Pantex.

The plant, he said, has been quite busy preparing for Consolidated to take over Pantex operations.

"Over the four-month transition, we completed thousands of action items, hired more than 7,800 employees across two sites, inspected nearly 400 facilities, reviewed and approved over 5,000 procedures, and set our plans for managing and operating the consolidated enterprise from Day 1," Bohne said. "And we did it all on schedule and under budget. We are ready to start on July 1, and we look forward to joining the teams at Pantex and Y-12."

Rep. Mac Thornberry said that sequestration - automatic federal budget cuts that will occur if Congress can't agree on deficit reduction measures - could affect Pantex and other federal facilities.

"My belief is that I think the workforce will be stable for the foreseeable future. That doesn't mean there won't be a few people moved around here or there," he said. "I have to say one of the causes for concern is that sequestration issue rears its head again next year. If there is a substantial cut in federal funding, then obviously Pantex would be affected just like every other federal facility would be affected. That is still a possibility that we've got to be aware of and that we've got to solve."

Consolidated's team includes Bechtel National Inc., Lockheed Martin Services Inc., ATK Launch Systems Inc., SOC LLC, a security contractor, and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., as a subcontractor.