PNNL

During a program review meeting at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in late May, a team of contracting officers at the Pacific Northwest Site Office (PNSO), the Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE SC), PNNL, and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) received an Award of Excellence from the NNSA Office of Defense Programs. The award recognized the team for ensuring that a $100 million basic ordering agreement for tritium-producing burnable absorber rod (TPBAR) components was approved and awarded before the end of calendar year 2021.

NNSA Acting Director of the Office of Tritium and Domestic Uranium Enrichment Nanette Founds and NNSA Lead for TPBAR Production and Tritium R&D Product Realization Teams Haylie Lobeck presented an award plaque to PNSO and certificates to the members of the contracting team. The team included Roger Snyder (now at Fermi Laboratory), Ryan Kilbury, Sue Harp, Robert McLeod (retired), and Julie Turner, all from PNSO; Roberta Ahlberg, Steven Jones, Amanda Fernandez, and Kristopher Muse, all from DOE SC; Dean Paxton, Samuel Grover, Susan Turner, Brandon Black, Katie Henderson, Jeff Venarsky, Randall Storms, and Kimberly Dawkins, all from PNNL; and Haylie Lobeck, Kyle Wilhelm, Patsy Nelson, and Jill Harral, all from NNSA.

As the design authority for TPBARs for more than 25 years, PNNL works with its partners to build and maintain a resilient TPBAR supply chain for the stockpile of the future. Dean Paxton, manager of the Tritium Technology Program at PNNL said, “Through the diligent efforts and thorough review of this basic ordering agreement, the team did not miss a beat for this mission—to maintain a continuous supply of this critical material.”