Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a federally funded research and development center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1943, the laboratory is now sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and administered by UT–Battelle, LLC.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federally funded research and development center in Livermore, California, United States. Originally established in 1952, the laboratory now is sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and administered privately by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, energy-related research, and energy conservation.
Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about 25 miles (40 km) west of downtown Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 31,402 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Knoxville Metropolitan Area. Oak Ridge's nicknames include the Atomic City, the Secret City, and the City Behind the Fence.
Bechtel Corporation is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company founded in San Francisco, California in 1898, and headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2022, the Engineering News-Record ranked Bechtel as the second largest construction company in the United States, following Turner Construction.
Battelle Memorial Institute is a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. The institute opened in 1929 but traces its origins to the 1923 will of Ohio industrialist Gordon Battelle which provided for its creation and his mother Annie Maude Norton Battelle who left the bulk of the family fortune to the institute after her death in 1925. Originally focusing on contract research and development work in the areas of metals and material science, Battelle is now an international science and technology enterprise that explores emerging areas of science, develops and commercializes technology, and manages laboratories for customers. It has 3,200 employees, and manages another 29,500 in ten United States Department of Energy National Laboratories.
Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory is a U.S. Government-owned research and development facility in the Pittsburgh suburb of West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, that works exclusively on the design and development of nuclear power for the U.S. Navy. It was one of the leaders in creating the nuclear navy.
K-25 was the codename given by the Manhattan Project to the program to produce enriched uranium for atomic bombs using the gaseous diffusion method. Originally the codename for the product, over time it came to refer to the project, the production facility located at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the main gaseous diffusion building, and ultimately the site. When it was built in 1944, the four-story K-25 gaseous diffusion plant was the world's largest building, comprising over 5,264,000 square feet (489,000 m2) of floor space and a volume of 97,500,000 cubic feet (2,760,000 m3).
The Y-12 National Security Complex is a United States Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration facility located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It was built as part of the Manhattan Project for the purpose of enriching uranium for the first atomic bombs. In the years after World War II, it has been operated as a manufacturing facility for nuclear weapons components.
The Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, also known as Plant Vogtle, is a four-unit nuclear power plant located in Burke County, near Waynesboro, Georgia, in the southeastern United States.
Pantex is the primary United States nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility that aims to maintain the safety, security and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. The facility is named for its location in the Panhandle of Texas on a 16,000-acre site 17 miles (27 km) northeast of Amarillo, in Carson County, Texas. The plant is managed and operated for the United States Department of Energy (DOE) by Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) and Sandia National Laboratories. CNS is composed of member companies Bechtel, Leidos, Orbital ATK, and SOC, with Booz Allen Hamilton as a teaming subcontractor. CNS also operates the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, a manufacturing facility for nuclear weapons components.
Los Alamos National Security, LLC was a private limited liability company (LLC) formed by the University of California, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, and URS Energy and Construction. From its creation until November 1, 2018, it operated Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration. It took over direct management and operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from the University of California on June 1, 2006. It was based in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Operation of Los Alamos National Laboratory are now overseen by Triad National Security.
The William H. Zimmer Power Station, located near Moscow, Ohio, was a 1.35-gigawatt coal power plant. Planned by Cincinnati Gas and Electric (CG&E), with Columbus & Southern Ohio Electric and Dayton Power & Light (DP&L) as its partners, it was originally intended to be a nuclear power plant. Although once estimated to be 97% complete, poor construction and quality assurance (QA) led to the plant being converted to coal-fired generation. The plant began operations in 1991. Today, the plant is owned and operated by Vistra Corp.
Linton Forrestall Brooks is an American government official who served as the Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security from 2002 to 2007.
Bechtel Jacobs Company LLC is a limited liability company owned by Bechtel and Jacobs Engineering Group that served as the primary contractor to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for waste management and environmental remediation activities on DOE-managed federal government properties in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is a United States federal agency responsible for safeguarding national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile; works to reduce the global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the United States Navy with safe and effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the United States and abroad.
The Clinton Engineer Works (CEW) was the production installation of the Manhattan Project that during World War II produced the enriched uranium used in the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, as well as the first examples of reactor-produced plutonium. It consisted of production facilities arranged at three major sites, various utilities including a power plant, and the town of Oak Ridge. It was in East Tennessee, about 18 miles (29 km) west of Knoxville, and was named after the town of Clinton, eight miles (13 km) to the north. The production facilities were mainly in Roane County, and the northern part of the site was in Anderson County. The Manhattan District Engineer, Kenneth Nichols, moved the Manhattan District headquarters from Manhattan to Oak Ridge in August 1943. During the war, Clinton's advanced research was managed for the government by the University of Chicago.
Nuclear labor issues exist within the international nuclear power industry and the nuclear weapons production sector worldwide, impacting upon the lives and health of laborers, itinerant workers and their families.
The Federal Protective Forces are the law enforcement agencies of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) responsible for the protection of Category I special nuclear material. Though officially classified as security police, they hold law enforcement status while engaged in the performance of official duties. Officers are equipped and trained to respond to serious incidents at Department of Energy facilities by armed adversaries and to reacquire stolen nuclear material. The FPFs have been described by the DOE as "elite fighting forces" designed to operate in "combat environments".
The Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, known as the Vit Plant, will process the nuclear waste at the Hanford Site in Washington into a solid glass form using vitrification. A proven technology that has been used at the Savannah River Site and West Valley Demonstration Project, vitrification involves mixing the waste with glass-forming chemicals, heating it to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit, and pouring it into stainless steel containers to solidify.
