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October 2003 Vision BWXT will continue to be the premier manager of complex, high-consequence nuclear and national security operations and will expand its position in defense nuclear production and nuclear remediation markets. Core Values At BWXT, we embrace Commitment & Integrity, Quality & Safety, and Value & Stewardship as our Core Values. Commitment & Integrity - At BWXT, we are committed to the relentless pursuit of our cusotmers’ needs. While meeting those needs, we are dedicated to the highest technical standards that allow an environment for our employees to make the right decision when confronted by difficult situations. Quality & Safety - At BWXT, we deliver the highest level of quality products and services to our customers. In developing our products and providing our services, we strive to maintain a safe work- place with an ongoing goal of zero accidents. Value & Stewardship - At BWXT, we place the utmost importance on being the best stewards - dedicated to preserving the long-term well being of our customers, our employees, our neighbors, and the environment we share. We value the trust others have placed in us. BWX Technologies, Inc., a McDermott company BWX Technologies, Inc. Employees: 10,940 Manufacturing Site Budgets Managed: $520 Million DOE Site Budgets Managed: $1.053 Billion Nuclear Facilities Under Management: 12 Million ft.2 Site Record For Safe Operations w/o Lost Work Days: 8 Million Man-Hours BWXT Facilities BWXT Corporate Headquarters - Lynchburg, VA Lynchburg Technology Center - Lynchburg, VA Nuclear Equipment Division - Barberton, OH Nuclear Equipment Division - Mt. Vernon, IN Nuclear Products Division - Lynchburg, VA Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Co. - Alliance, OH NNSA Sites Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory - West Mifflin, PA Los Alamos National Laboratory - Los Alamos, NM Pantex Plant - Amarillo, TX Savannah River Site - Aiken, SC Y-12 National Security Complex - Oak Ridge, TN DOE Sites Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory - Idaho Falls, ID Miamisburg Closure Project - Miamisburg, OH Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Oak Ridge, TN Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site - Golden, CO Savannah River Site - Aiken, SC Strategic Petroleum Reserve Operations - LA, TX By Craig S. Hansen On the high desert plains of Northern Texas, amid the evening primrose and fringed sagebrush, a silent revolution in operational performance is taking place in a sprawling but secure, high-conse- quence nuclear weapons facility called Pantex - our Nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disas- sembly facility. Nearly 1,200 miles due east, nestled at the western edge of the great valley in the farmlands and woodlots east of the Cumberland Plateau, lies the Y-12 National Security Complex. It too is under- going an operational revolution - its 600 structures being refur- bished or torn down as part of the United States Government's effort to modernize its nuclear weapons industrial complex and ensure the continuing viability of a significantly downsized, and aging nuclear deterrent. EXPLORE BWXT / October 2003 5 The two sites have a storied but secretive history. dle of the east-west corridor of Interstate 40. By its As essential components of the Nation's nuclear own right, Amarillo, spurred on by ranching and oil weapon's race with the Soviet Union they played a money, has become a regional center - a gathering key role in the Nation's security, but as the Cold War place in the country's southern heartland, where waned, and the Government implemented the pre- hungry visitors and locals can still try to polish off cepts of the START I and II Treaties, the sites’ mate- 72-ounce steaks, and receive some of the best rial readiness deteriorated, and healthcare in the country. But the missions significantly Pantex and its complex nuclear changed. Pantex’s operations gives Amarillo much In the year 2000, the Panel to Primary Missions higher visibility in the Nation's Assess the Reliability, Safety, capital than other cities with its and Security of the United States Nuclear Weapons Assembly size and location. Mac Nuclear Stockpile (the Foster and Disassembly Thornberry, 13th District Panel) reported to Senator John Representative, chaired a Warner, Chairman of the Senate Evaluate Nuclear Weapons special Congressional panel Committee on Armed Services, to Maintain Reliability of overseeing the startup of the of "…growing deficiencies…deep the Nation’s Weapons newly established NNSA. His morale and personnel prob- Stockpile efforts, combined with the lems…continued slippage of pro- leadership of NNSA, including gram milestones…and unaccept- Research and Development Ambassador Linton Brooks and ably high risks to the completion High-Explosive Capabilities Dr. Everet Beckner, and its of needed weapons refurbish- field offices, have created the ments." Warning of a potential Maintain Interim Plutonium environment necessary to start crisis the panel recommended Pit Storage revitalizing the nuclear steps for the newly created weapons complex. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to take. Both Congress and John Gordon, the newly appointed Administrator for NNSA, began to take corrective actions. BWXT began operational changes at Pantex and Y-12 after it was awarded new manage- ment and operations contracts in 2000. Compared to 2000, Pantex operations achieved an port functions. DOE owns about 9,100 acres at the Drawing on its strength as an owner/oper- 81 percent increase in productive output in 2002. Pantex site, of which about 2,000 acres are used for ater of large nuclear manufacturing oper- BWXT Pantex, a limited liability corporation running the industrial operations. Mike Mallory, BWXT Pantex ations, and a history of commercial Pantex site for the DOE, trained hundreds of employees President and General Manager, characterizes the suc- practice and disciplined conduct of in quality improvement and cost savings - training, cess at Pantex as the result of, "attention to detail, operations, BWXT and its partner which combined with other quality initiatives, has strong conduct of operations, excellent personnel effec- companies, Bechtel and Honeywell, reduced the number of tively used, and an began the process of working with product defects by more BWXT’s approach to revitalizing Pantex emphasis on process, NNSA, and a highly talented than half since BWXT took knowledge, and but often underutilized over operations. And the is attention to detail, strong conduct improvement." workforce, to transform the increased productivity isn't of operations, excellent personnel Cleanup work at the troubled sites. coming at the expense of plant is also reducing safe operations: in roughly effectively used, and an emphasis on employee health risks. the same period accident process, knowledge, and improvement. Testing and cleanup of Amarillo, TX: and lost- time injury rates Pantex facilities to Cattle, black gold, the were cut in half. eliminate additional per- eastern hognose snake, BWXT brought in a new team of managers, steeped sonnel exposure to beryllium, a substance that can in commercial practices, program management and cause respiratory problems in personnel with certain and the heart of the production, to create a new management structure to sensitivities, was finished 18 months ahead of Nation's nuclear deterrent upgrade its operations. The managers oversee an array schedule. of buildings for assembly/disassembly of nuclear (Continued on page 8.) Founded in 1887, the city of weapons and for storage, administrative and other sup- Amarillo lies almost exactly in the mid- EXPLORE BWXT / October 2003 7 Oak Ridge, TN: BWXT recently sent Dennis Ruddy to head the Lakes, Mountains, Y-12 Primary Missions storage of nuclear material, and pre- operation and to ensure the turnaround produces vention of the spread of weapons of long-term sustainable results. "We are making the and Yellow Cake's Produce and Refurbish Nuclear mass destruction. Its storage func- Y-12 complex more able, agile and affordable," says Fort Knox Weapon Components tion alone makes it the Nation's Fort Ruddy, President and General Manager of BWXT Knox of highly enriched uranium. Y-12. The statement belies Ruddy's reputation as Oak Ridge, originally known Safeguard Special Nuclear Material It is also the Nation's premier a turnaround agent, and his long years of technical as “Clinton Engineer Works,” location for uranium and lithium and program management experience with the was World War II's secret Prevent the Proliferation of Weapons materials research. In addition, Y-12 Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program and Tenneco. city. Created in 1942 as one of Mass Destruction conducts assesment and certifica- of the major sites of the tion of certain nuclear weapons "Manhattan Project," the Provide Support For Other National components. These assessments of Restart of Y-12’s wet chemistry 60,000-acre tract where the Security Needs stockpiled nuclear weapons compo- operations is the critical milestone town and its plants were built nents allowed the Nation to forego would become the lynchpin underground weapon tests. in a phased plan to resume full in a massive effort to shorten Unlike Amarillo, Oak Ridge grew operation. the war, and its burgeoning impact up as a nuclear town, and its leadership in Congress, on the Nation, through the use of nuclear weapons. Representative Zack Wamp, of the 3rd District, appreci- Deliberately placed "off the main path" in a location ates that history. As Vice-Chairman of the Energy and northwest of the Great Smoky Mountains, the Y-12 Water Appropriations Subcommittee, and recently named Working with NNSA leadership, BWXT Y-12 National Security Complex is the NNSA's part of Oak to the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, recently received design approval for a new storage Ridge's Operation. Y-12 focuses on production and refur- the 45-year-old Chattanoogan has consistently played a facility for highly enriched uranium, and has started bishment of components for nuclear weapons, production key role in defending the site, promoting modernization, construction on a purification facility to handle spe- of components for Navy nuclear propulsion systems, and in securing new missions. cial materials.